Opening hours: Closed Mondays and Tuesdays; open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays 10am-3.30pm; Fridays 10am-4pm.
The Karol Szymanowski Museum is housed in the Atma Villa, a pre-1910 wooden building in the Zakopane style, in which Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) composer, pianist and author of musical and literary studies lived and worked from 1930 to 1936. Plans for the museum, opened in 1967, were announced on the thirtieth anniversary of the composer's death. Jerzy Waldorff took up the cause and organised the "Atma" Social Action Committee. Since 1977, in addition to the museum, the villa also houses the headquarters of the Karol Szymanowski National Musical Society, which stages concerts and music festivals there.
The museum is dedicated to the life and work of composer and pianist Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937). Szymanowski was also a music and literary critic. Late in his career, he used Polish folk motifs in his musical compositions, primarily from the Podhale and Kurpiow region. Szymanowski's respect for Polish traditions, his use of folk motifs, especially in later works, and his strong artistic personality make him the greatest Polish composer of the first half of the twentieth century, and one of Europe's finest as well.
The Museum contains mementoes from the composer's life, personal effects and books. Visitors can see photographs, letters, manuscripts, books with dedications from the authors, diplomas, Szymanowski's concert tails, medals and distinctions he received, personal effects, death mask, his portrait painted by S. I. Witkiewicz in 1931, and furniture and furnishings, including his piano.
Permanent exhibitions: Karol Szymanowski: Life and Work; the villa's interiors open to the public include the dining room, bedroom and study on the ground floor and the library and archive on the first floor.
Muzeum Karola Szymanowskiego w willi "Atma" w Zakopanem
Oddział Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie
ul. Kasprusie 19
34-500 Zakopane
Region: małopolskie
Phone/Fax: (+48 18) 201 34 93
WWW: www.muzeum.krakow.pl
Email: atmamuzeum@wp.pl