Opening hours: Closed Mondays and Tuesdays; open Wednesdays-Saturdays, 9am-4pm; Sundays, 9am-3pm.
The Stanislaw Witkiewicz Museum of the Zakopane Style is housed in the "Koliba" summer house, designed by Stanislaw Witkiewicz and built in 1892-1894, the first building in the Zakopane style.
When the Swiss and Tyrolean architectural style began to appear in Zakopane after 1850, as it did in many other Polish resorts, Stanislaw Witkiewicz realised that to save the Podhale region from non-indigenous architecture, a distinctive style based on local building traditions needed to be created. With the "Koliba" villa, Witkiewicz introduced this new style. It was designed for Zygmunt Gnatowski, the Tatra folklore collector and aficionado.
"Koliba" was turned into a museum in 1993. Its interiors, arranged by the sculptor Wladyslaw Hasior, reflect their original style and use. The dining room, living room and bedroom are on the ground floor, while Gnatowski and his servant's rooms are on the first floor. Among the museum's prized possessions are some objects designed or inspired by Witkiewicz, including an embroidered woolen carpet from 1886, the prototype for the Tatra Mountains Museum Society membership card in period frames designed by Witkiewicz dating from 1889, The Tale of Death by Jan Krzeptowski Sabala, written on the margins of one of Witkiewicz's drawings and placed within a heavily sculpted frame, and furniture designed by Witkiewicz himself or by his closest colleagues, such as Wojciech Brzega, Stanislaw Barabasz and Franciszek Neuzil. Incidentally, Neuzil was the first principal of the Zakopane Woodworking School, was the one who introduced the term "Zakopane style" to refer to the furniture he himself had designed, which was decorated with Podhale motifs.
Other objects in the museum include jewellery in the Zakopane style, a silver coffee set, lace, and wooden models of liturgical vessels. Also on display are works by Witkiewicz's son, Stanislaw Ignacy, known as Witkacy, the painter and playwright.
Muzeum Stylu Zakopiańskiego im. Stanisława Witkiewicza
Willa "Koliba"
Oddział Muzeum Tatrzańskiego w Zakopanem
ul. Kościeliska 18
34-500 Zakopane
Region: małopolskie
Phone: (+48 18) 201 36 02
WWW: www.muzeum.tatrynet.pl
Email: museum@tatrynet.pl