Osada Czorsztyn (Czorsztyn Settlement)

When water began to fill the Dunajec valley in the 1990s, the old village of Maniowy, part of Kluszkowce and the summer-resort quarter of old Czorsztyn vanished beneath Lake Czorsztyn. Some of their buildings survived – taken apart beam by beam and reassembled on the Stylchyn peninsula. The result is Osada Czorsztyn: 31 timber and stone buildings that tell the story of a world now lying tens of metres under water.

History: a rescue open-air museum

The idea of an ethnographic park for the Czorsztyn area dates back to the 1960s. The Tatra Museum dismantled historic buildings in Maniowy in 1977–1979, but they waited nearly two decades to be rebuilt. Work on the settlement started in 1997 and won third prize in the "Building of the Year 1997" competition. While one of the old inns was being reconstructed, guests' signatures were found on its walls – the oldest from 1894.

The site was eventually split in two: a "spa" section of villas, now housing a hotel and restaurant, and a rural section with cottages, farmsteads and cellars, intended as an exhibition. Today the whole complex is run by a private operator.

What to see

• The lane of cellars – 11 stone cellars topped with small timber granaries, saved from the 37 that once stood in Maniowy. Built of rubble stone around 1900, they are the most unusual part of the settlement.
• Jan Królczyk's farmstead – former farm buildings with furnishings from 1909, used as a regional museum.
• The oldest cottage, dating from 1898 and later slightly altered.
• Teofil Sanok's villa of 1924–1925 – home of a beekeeper, musician and teacher from Kluszkowce, with richly carved balustrades, porch and gables.
• Leopold Szperling's villa – a former inn, now a restaurant – and Józef Galota's villa, which served as the health centre of old Czorsztyn after the war.
• The Drohojowski manor ("Bank") of 1880 – the summer villa of the family who developed the resort here from the 19th century.
• The villas on the south side – "Basia II", "Basia III" with its glazed veranda, "Zbyszek" in the Zakopane style and villa no. 333 from Maniowy in the Swiss style; some are still awaiting a new use.

The view

From the settlement you can see five national parks: the Gorce range with Turbacz, the Pieniny, the Polish and Slovak Tatras and Babia Góra. Two medieval castles – Czorsztyn and Niedzica – stand above the water, with the hydroelectric dam to the south-east. A sailing marina of the Podhale Sailing Society is right next door.

Tripto tip

The settlement lies on the northern shore of the lake, on the road from Kluszkowce towards Maniowy, about 2.5 km from the centre of Czorsztyn. A walk among the cellars, cottages and villas takes 45–60 minutes. It is private land with a hotel and restaurant, so check on site whether the regional museum is open. The best light on the Tatras and the castles comes in the late afternoon on a clear day.