Tourist hut Peklo (Bartoňova utulna)

The tourist cottage, standing by the Olešenka river before its confluence with the Metují, is built in a romantic location in the Peklo valley and is surrounded on almost all sides by the territory of the Peklo nature reserve near Nové Město nad Metují.

Bartoňova utulna (also called Peklo cottage) is a stylish cottage built according to the design of architect Dušan Jurkovič. He was inspired in his buildings mainly by the folk architecture of Wallachia and Slovakia. Its design with elements of folk architecture fits perfectly into the surrounding natural scenery and makes Bartoň's cozy house a unique architectural gem.

The cottage is an articulated building in the folk art nouveau style on a rectangular floor plan with two wings and a narrow veranda in front of the facade. The central part of the building is one-storey with a living room, which is connected to the right by a ground-floor wing and a wooden veranda. The roof of the house is hipped, partly covered with shingles. The building is completed with sculptures of devils both inside and outside.

On the site of today's cottage, there was originally a mill called Pekelec, which was rebuilt in 1912 for Mr. Bartoná, the owner of the New Town Castle, into an excursion restaurant with the possibility of accommodation. The cottage soon became a popular tourist destination. The tourist hut in Pekla was visited by many important personalities of the time, such as Alois Jirásek, Jan Masaryk, Edvard Beneš, Jiří Guth-Jarkovský and the actor Eduard Vojan.
An interesting fact is that the writer Alois Jirásek set the plot of his short story „In Hell“ in this environment.

In 2012, Bartoň's cozy cottage underwent an extensive renovation, which preserved the original nature of the cottage and at the same time adapted it to modern needs. Currently, the cottage offers a variety of services from catering to overnight accommodation.

The cottage does not deny that it was originally a mill. There is a small pond behind the cottage in the direction of Olešenac, with a small sluice gate. In front of the restaurant there are tables made of millstones.