Międzylesie, Lower Silesia, Poland
26 April – 1 May 2027

A Symposium, but not quite like any other

The International Symposium on Fairytales, Stories and Creative Arts Therapies is an international gathering dedicated to the exploration of stories, imagination and the creative arts as sources of knowledge, connection and transformation.

It brings together perspectives from creative arts therapies, psychotherapy, psychology, storytelling, literature, education, arts and cultural studies, alongside the lived experience and creative practice of those who work with stories in different contexts.

The programme will offer a rich combination of presentations, experiential workshops, creative practices and opportunities for dialogue, creating space not only for sharing knowledge but also for experiencing, questioning and discovering.

We believe that some of the most meaningful encounters happen between disciplines — and between people.

For this reason, the Symposium welcomes an intentionally diverse international community. Researchers and practitioners, therapists and artists, storytellers and educators, academics and curious explorers will meet not only to present their work, but to listen to one another and discover unexpected connections.

Two days before we enter the Symposium

The gathering will begin with two full days of Pre-Symposium Workshops.

These days will offer a more intimate and experiential beginning to our journey, with extended workshops allowing participants to immerse themselves in particular approaches, practices and themes.

After these two days, we will enter the four-day Symposium, with a programme of presentations, workshops and shared conversations.

Together, the six days will form one continuous experience — from deeper exploration in smaller groups to the wider international exchange of the Symposium.

Programme: Available soon

FEES: Available soon

REGISTRATION: conferences@moonluza.pt

The Place — Where Stories Have Walls

Międzylesie — Where the Forest Meets the Castle

Our Symposium will take place in Międzylesie, a small historic town in the southern part of Lower Silesia, in the heart of Ziemia Kłodzka (Kłodzko Land), close to the Czech border.

Międzylesie lies among the mountains and forests of the Sudetes, in a region shaped over centuries by the meeting of Polish, Czech, Silesian and German cultural influences. Its location itself reflects the character of the region: a place at a crossroads, where different landscapes, histories and traditions meet.

And then there is the castle.

Zamek Międzylesie

For our gathering, we will have the extraordinary opportunity to meet in Zamek Międzylesie, a historic castle with approximately 700 years of history.

Today the castle combines its historical character with accommodation, guided visits and gastronomy inspired by traditional Polish cuisine.

There is something wonderfully appropriate about spending almost a week talking about fairytales, myths, stories and imagination inside an actual castle.

The castle will not simply be our venue.

It will be part of the experience.

Its corridors, courtyards, rooms, stories and surrounding landscape will become another layer of the Symposium — a setting in which professional exchange can coexist with curiosity, discovery and a little sense of wonder.

And, because we are in a region where nature is never far away, there will also be opportunities to step outside the castle and explore the surrounding landscape.

Ziemia KÅ‚odzka / Lower Silesia

A Land Between Mountains and Stories

Ziemia Kłodzka is one of the most distinctive regions of Lower Silesia — a landscape of mountains, forests, valleys, historic towns, castles, fortresses and spa resorts.

The Kłodzko Valley is surrounded by several mountain ranges, including the Bystrzyckie and Stołowe Mountains and the Śnieżnik Massif. The area offers extensive walking trails and remarkable natural sites, while its cultural heritage reflects centuries of changing borders and influences.

It is a region for those who enjoy walking without a strict destination, discovering small towns, entering old churches, finding hidden paths, listening to local stories — or simply sitting somewhere with a coffee and watching the landscape.

Getting There

Finding Your Way to Międzylesie

Międzylesie is located in south-western Poland, close to the Czech border, and can be reached comfortably by road or rail.

By plane

The two airports we recommend considering are:

Wrocław Airport, Poland
From Wrocław, you can continue by train towards Międzylesie. There are direct rail connections from Wrocław Główny, with multiple services during the day. Current railway listings show regular connections between Wrocław and Międzylesie. More info: HERE

Prague Airport, Czechia
Prague is another attractive option, particularly for international participants who would like to combine the Symposium with some time in Czechia. The rail route towards Międzylesie runs via the Czech-Polish border, with Międzylesie connected to the Czech railway network via Lichkov or direct train called Baltic Express. More info: HERE

By train

Międzylesie has its own railway station, making it particularly convenient for participants travelling without a car. The town lies on the railway route connecting Wrocław and the Czech side of the border. Current schedules show several daily connections between Wrocław and Międzylesie.

By car

Międzylesie is easily accessible by road from both Poland and Czechia. It is located close to the Czech border and is a natural gateway into the southern part of the Kłodzko region.

Detailed travel information, recommended routes, airport connections and transfer possibilities will be provided closer to the Symposium.

 About the organiser

A story of two homes, a fairytale and a journey back to the forest

Some stories are written because we have something to say.
Others are written because there is somewhere we need to return to.

Adriana Jurczyk Duarte holds a Master’s Degree in Philology from the University of Wrocław, Poland.

For the past twenty three years, she has lived on the sunny coast of Portugal, together with her husband, daughter and two dogs. Her life, however, has always unfolded between two places: Portugal, where she made her home, and Poland, which she never quite stopped missing.

Some places remain within us, even when we leave them behind.

For Adriana, the landscapes of her childhood — the mountains, forests and rivers of southern Poland, the stories and legends of her home village — continued to live quietly somewhere inside her. And eventually, nostalgia became a journey.

She began writing a fairytale inspired by the legends of her home village and the mountains she had grown up with. What began as an act of remembering slowly became something more.

Writing the fairytale became a way of travelling home.

Through words and imagination, Adriana found herself walking again through familiar forests, returning to childhood paths, hearing the rivers and rediscovering landscapes that distance had made almost mythical.

But something else happened along the way.

The fairytale began to create a bridge between two worlds: the childhood haven she had left behind and the new homeland she was building in Portugal. And on the Portuguese side of that bridge stood Sintra — a magical, mysterious and inspiring town that she had fallen in love with.

Her own fairytale became, in a very real sense, her therapy.

It helped her understand that perhaps home does not always have to be a place we return to. Sometimes we can create a new home by carrying our stories with us.

And from that personal experience grew Moonluza — Adriana’s project, created in Portugal as a space for stories, journeys, encounters, culture. language and imagination.

Among the first and dearest projects she created through Moonluza was the International Seminar on Fairytale and Storytelling Therapy, based, naturally, in Sintra.

What began as a small idea gradually became a meeting place for people from different countries and professional backgrounds who shared a fascination with stories and their transformative potential. Over the years, the Sintra Seminars grew into a unique international community and, for a decade, created a space where storytelling, therapy, creativity, research and human connection could meet.

In 2026, that ten-year chapter came to an end.

But stories rarely end where we think they do.

They transform.
They travel.
They find new paths.

And so, in 2027, the journey continues — this time travelling in the opposite direction, from the magical landscapes of Sintra back towards the mountains and forests of southern Poland.

To Międzylesie.

To Ziemia KÅ‚odzka.

To the place where Adriana’s own story began.

And perhaps this is why In the Heart of the Forest is more than the title of a Symposium.

It is, in some ways, a return to the beginning — and an invitation to begin something new.

More than a Symposium

We believe that a truly meaningful gathering is created not only by the quality of its academic content, but by the quality of the encounters it makes possible.

This is why we have chosen to create a Symposium where there is room for both knowledge and experience, depth and playfulness, research and imagination, professional exchange and friendship.

A place where an unexpected conversation over coffee can be as valuable as the presentation that brought us together.

A place where people from different corners of the world can meet around stories that, despite our differences, somehow belong to all of us.

And perhaps, above all, a place where we can remember that stories are not only something we tell. They are something that connects us, changes us, and sometimes helps us find our way home.