In times of the Polish People’s Republic, Arłamów, Kwaszenina, and Trójca were one of the most inaccessible places in Poland. The Resort Centre of the Bureau of the Council of Ministers in Arłamów had a cryptonym W-2 and was impossible to find on maps.
In the 1970s, the Bureau of the Council of Ministers created a secret Resort Centre in Arłamów. The object had a cryptonym W-2 and covered the area of ca. 30,000 hectares of forest, meadows, and hills, including deserted developments of several villages. The government complex included the centre in Arłamów, a hunting centre in Trójca, and security facilities in Kwaszenina. The whole area was surrounded by an 80-kilometer-long fence and it was strongly guarded by the army in order to prevent non-invited persons from getting inside. The URM W-1 facility was accessed by narrow roads with numerous boom barriers. Dignitaries staying in Arłamów could get to the centre also by plane.
The main activities entertaining guests included hunting and parties. Special passages were created in the fence that surrounded the complex to ensure enough animals for hunting. The passages were constructed in a way allowing animals to pass through with no possibility to go back.
Among visitors of URM W-1 were Edward Gierek or Piotr Jaroszewicz. The then government invited Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, Baudouin, the king of Belgium, Josip Broz Tito, the president of Yugoslavia, Valery Giscard d’Estaigne, and many other dignitaries to stay in Arłamów.
After martial law was introduced, Arłamów became a place of internment of Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Solidarity, who stayed in the centre from May to November 1982. Several years later, in 1989, the governmental centre ceased to operate.
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