Old Cottage Museum in Milówka

The Old Cottage (Stara Chałupa) at 1 Piastowska Street in Milówka is a timber house built in 1739, one of the oldest surviving examples of folk architecture in the Żywiec region. Today it houses a small museum run by the municipal cultural centre (GOK), where the hall, main room and side chamber look as if the owners had just gone out to the fields.

History: from innkeeper to the Kąkol family

The cottage was built by Piotr Gorel, an innkeeper from Milówka, and it may well have served at first as a village inn. A Latin inscription bearing the name of Sebastian Caputa survives on the central beam of the main room. Caputa, a manor official from Węgierska Górka, bought the whole farm with its buildings and livestock in 1760 from Bartłomiej, the builder's son. Caputa's childless son Jan adopted his nephew Marcin Kąkol and handed the house over to him, and the Kąkol family lived here until the early 1970s. In the 1980s the building was thoroughly restored after detailed field research and opened to visitors in 1988; since 1992 it has belonged to the Milówka municipality.

What to see inside

The house is made of long logs joined with saddle notches and dovetails, set on a stone foundation under a gabled shingle roof. The furnishings belong to the Municipal Museum in Żywiec.

• The hall with a clay threshing floor and farm tools on the walls; wooden stairs lead to the attic, once used as a smokehouse, and stone steps to a storeroom.
• The main room with a bread oven under a hood, milk vessels known locally as gielety, a butter churn and a "holy corner" with a small shrine. Below the pictures stands a table with an inlaid top, used only on major feast days as a domestic altar, and the painted chests had wheels so they could be rolled out quickly in case of fire.
• The side chamber (alkierz) with the oven's chimney breast passing through the wall, a small cellar under the floor and a weaving loom.

Did you know

Local legend says that King John Casimir stopped here while fleeing the Swedes, and that John III Sobieski spent a night here on his way to Vienna. These are traditions rather than documented facts, but they show how highly Milówka values its oldest house. In 2010 a second building, moved from Przyłęków, was set up next door and now hosts workshops in tissue-paper crafts, glass painting and ceramics. The museum also holds demonstrations of old household work such as spinning wool, shelling beans and plucking feathers.

Tripto tips

• GOK Milówka lists opening hours valid until 27 February 2026 (Tuesday–Friday 9:00–14:00, Saturdays during winter and summer school holidays 10:00–14:00; standard ticket PLN 7, reduced PLN 4, guide PLN 15). No newer schedule has been published, so call before you go: +48 33 863 73 99.
• About half an hour is enough for the three rooms, longer if you catch a demonstration or workshop.
• Milówka has a railway station on the Żywiec–Zwardoń line, and the cottage stands in the centre of the village.