Zakopane - the Winter Capital of Poland

Zakopane is a town located at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, which is the highest range in the Carpathian Chain and the most beautiful stretch of mountains between the Alps and the Caucasus. It is Poland’s best known place of recreation, as well as a center for culture and sport. No other place with so relatively few inhabitants (30,000) brings in so many visitors (3 million a year).  

It has been accepted that Zakopane appeared in 1578, on the strength of privileges extended by King Stefan Batory. However, the oldest document in which the name appears is one issued by King Zygmunt III Vasa in 1630. The oldest part of the town is Kuznice, where the working of iron ore began in the second half of the 18the century. However, the world only ‘discovered’ the place in the 1870s, thanks to the effort of physician and naturalist Dr. Tytus Chalubinski. In the late 19^th century and early 20^th centuries, Zakopane – still a small village of highland people – became a fashionable resort and spa town, a known center for the treatment of tuberculosis, a stopover for artists and a cradle of cultural life.

 

There are more than one hundred talents living here today, many of whom open their studios up to the public. Many creative talents include: Stanislaw Witkiewicz developed the Zakopianski architectural style so characteristic of Zakopane; Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz – writer, painter, philosopher; Tadeusz Brzozowski – painter; Wladyslaw Hasior and Antoni Rzasa – both sculptors; Ewelina Peksowa – painter on glass.

The Makuszynski Muzeum (above) is frequented by schoolchildren on visits to the mountains.

Time has stood still here, as if the writer had only left his desk for a moment or two. Standing in front of the Opolanka Villa on Tetmajera St is Andrzej Renes’s Monument to Kornel Makuszynksi. At his feet is the best-known hero from his books, namely the goat Koziolek Matolek (which stands on his desk in red shorts and shoes).

The town and surrounding villages are connected with still-visible styles of clothing, dance, folk music and song. There are several regional folk ensembles active in the area, with dozens of highlander music groups. A similar number of folk artists and craftsmen are resident and it is here that skill in painted glass, sculpture, woodcarving and violin-making reach their peak.

Source: Zakopane by Parma Press