Zakopane Style Trail

The Zakopane Style Trail is a town route linking 41 historic buildings in Zakopane, built in the style that Stanisław Witkiewicz created around 1900 as a model for a Polish national architecture. It was opened in July 2014 on the initiative of the Tatra Museum, and the buildings were catalogued and described by Zbigniew Moździerz. Each building on the route carries a plaque with the trail logo and a QR code linking to a description.

History: a style meant to be national

In the second half of the 19th century, Swiss- and Tyrolean-style villas began to appear in Zakopane. Witkiewicz decided that Podhale needed protecting from alien architecture and set out to derive a new style from the building craft of the local highlanders. The first result was Villa Koliba on Kościeliska Street, built in 1892–1893 by local carpenters for the landowner and collector Zygmunt Gnatowski. The Zakopane Style lasted barely twenty years, yet it spread to Wisła, Nałęczów, Kraków, Warsaw, Lviv and Kazimierz Dolny, and even to Lithuania, where a narrow-gauge railway station at Syłgudyszki was built to Witkiewicz's design.

What to see

The route includes both timber villas and masonry buildings:

• Villa Koliba – now the Museum of the Zakopane Style, a branch of the Tatra Museum, with interiors arranged by Władysław Hasior,
• Villa Pod Jedlami (House under the Firs) – considered the finest of Witkiewicz's villas,
• Villa Konstantynówka and Villa Jutrzenka,
• the Chapel of the Sacred Heart at Jaszczurówka, designed by Witkiewicz,
• the Tatra Museum building – in brick and stone, built to the artist's last design of 1913,
• Księżówka on the road to Kuźnice.

Did you know?

Koliba had a turbulent history. In 1901 Gnatowski added a large west wing that altered the original design. After his death the villa changed hands several times; during the occupation it housed the Hitler Youth, and after the war a holiday home and, until 1981, an orphanage. The museum opened in December 1993, almost a century after construction. Five rooms in the oldest part were furnished according to their original use, and Gnatowski's ethnographic collection returned to the "highlander's chamber".

Tripto tips

The buildings are spread across the whole town, so split the route into several walks: around Kościeliska Street (Koliba), the centre with the Tatra Museum, and the eastern edge with Jaszczurówka. Most villas are private homes and guesthouses seen from outside. You can go inside at Koliba, Kościeliska 18: according to the Tatra Museum, a standard ticket costs PLN 20, reduced PLN 10, entry is free on Thursdays and the museum is closed on Tuesdays. The trail's original website no longer works, so the QR codes on the plaques may not lead to descriptions; bring a map or guidebook.