Gąsienica Sobczak Cottage in Zakopane

The Gąsienica Sobczak Cottage (Chałupa Gąsieniców Sobczaków) is a branch of the Tatra Museum in a wooden highland cottage near Kościeliska Street, the oldest street in Zakopane and the richest in historic buildings. The house once belonged to the Gąsienica Sobczak highland family and is considered one of the most valuable monuments of folk architecture in the town: the oldest part was built around 1830, and the cottage took its present form after being extended at the end of the 19th century.

The museum opened its exhibition here on 1 July 2009 — the 120th anniversary of the day the Tatra Museum's collections were first shown to the Zakopane public. The permanent exhibition is called "Zakopane Style – Inspirations" and explains where Stanisław Witkiewicz's first Polish "national" style came from. At the end of the 19th century, the intelligentsia who came to Zakopane for the summer or settled here for good became fascinated by the culture of the Podhale highlanders. Collectors — Róża Krasińska, Maria and Bronisław Dembowski, Zygmunt Gnatowski, Bronisława Kondratowicz — gathered folk objects, and Władysław Matlakowski described highland building (1892) and household decoration (1901) in works that remain unequalled. The Zakopane style was born of this fascination. Witkiewicz himself wrote in his essay "Po latach" (1906) that the highland cottage was a treasury of old culture which seemed doomed to vanish and almost cried out for rescue — and that it had been saved.

What to see

• The black room (izba czarna) — the room where the whole life of a highland family once took place. It is furnished as cottages looked in the second half of the 19th century in Matlakowski's descriptions and Witkiewicz's drawings, with the oldest exhibits from the museum's collections.
• The white room (izba biała) — the best room, displaying the collection of Maria and Bronisław Dembowski, gathered in 1886–1893 and donated to the museum in 1922: almost four hundred objects — paintings on glass, ceramics, carved spoon racks, sculpture, clothing and shepherds' utensils. These very objects directly inspired Witkiewicz when he designed furniture and everyday items in the Zakopane style.
• The collection's first spoon rack — the Dembowskis found it in 1886 in a highland cottage at Furmanowa; Witkiewicz wrote that from this "spark" the great bonfire of the Zakopane style blazed up.
• The cottage itself: log walls, a shingle roof, carved details. During restoration the walls were re-caulked with moss and the roof re-covered with shingles.

Practical information

The cottage stands on Droga do Rojów, a lane leading off Kościeliska Street; it is about 1.3 km from Krupówki, a 15–20-minute walk past old villas. The exhibition is small: 30–40 minutes is enough, so it combines well with Villa Koliba half a kilometre away — together they show the path from the highland cottage to the finished style. After restoration the building was adapted for visitors with disabilities, with accessible entrances and a toilet. Entry is free on Thursdays, and the branch is closed on Tuesdays. Children enjoy looking at the old pots, the stove and the carvings, but the rooms are small, so in high season it is better to come in the morning.

Nearby: trails and peaks

Only 250 m away runs our trail Zakopane – Dzianisz, and a little further Zakopane – Witów: both head west over the hills above Kościelisko with views of the Tatras. Nearby are also Villa Koliba — Museum of Zakopane Style, the Old Church and Pęksowy Brzyzek Cemetery and Gubałówka — viewpoint ridge above Zakopane.

Official website: muzeumtatrzanskie.pl

Photos: Januszk57, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, Wikimedia Commons; mik Krakow, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.