The Zakopane Style at its peak
The fullest expression of the architecture Witkiewicz drew from shepherds' building.
Ed88 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Jakub T. Jankiewicz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jakub T. Jankiewicz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · FilipK77 — CC BY-SA 4.0
A small wooden chapel east of Zakopane, the most important building in the Zakopane Style and its most complete expression. The style itself is the story: at the end of the nineteenth century Poland was partitioned between three empires and did not exist as a state. The artist Stanisław Witkiewicz looked at the traditional timber building of the Tatra shepherds and decided to develop it into a national architecture — something purely Polish that had not come from Vienna, Berlin or Moscow. This chapel, which he designed in 1907, is that project's high point: built wholly in timber with steeply pitched roofs and carved ornament drawn from shepherds' decoration, its stained glass in mountain patterns. That makes it more than an attractive church: it is a political and cultural statement built out of wood at a time when Poland did not exist on the map. It is very small and the visit is twenty minutes, and it is a working place of worship that may be closed outside service times — it is seen from outside in any case, and its setting is part of its beauty. It stands on the eastern road out of Zakopane towards Morskie Oko.
The fullest expression of the architecture Witkiewicz drew from shepherds' building.
Built when Poland did not exist on the map — the timber was a position.
Stained glass drawn from Tatra tradition rather than European church convention.
Jaszczurówka, east of Zakopane on the Morskie Oko road
An architectural and decorative style developed by Stanisław Witkiewicz in the 1890s from the traditional timber building of the Tatras. He wanted a Polish national style at a time when the country was partitioned and occupied. It is marked by timber, steep roofs and carved ornament, and spread across Zakopane and then to other regions.
The Villa Koliba in Zakopane, the first building in the style and today a museum of it; the Villa Pod Jedlami; and many houses in the town's streets. The tourist office hands out a walking route linking them, the best way to understand Zakopane beyond the commercial Krupówki street.
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