Market under Gubałówka

The market under Gubałówka (Targ pod Gubałówką) is Zakopane's best-known bazaar and probably the most photographed row of stalls in the Polish Tatras. It stretches along Na Gubałówkę street by the lower station of the funicular up Gubałówka hill: wooden stalls under shingled roofs, piles of spindle-shaped cheeses, sheepskins, woollen jumpers and socks. For many travellers this is where their acquaintance with Podhale begins, as the market is a stone's throw from both Krupówki, the main street, and the funicular.

The Gubałówka funicular was built in 1938 and is 1,298 m long, and its lower station has been one of the busiest spots in town ever since. According to the cable-car operator PKL, there are many shops and a market selling folk souvenirs by the station, and this is where highlanders sell sheepskin and wool products. The market covers more than 1.8 hectares, so allow at least an hour for a stroll.

What to buy

• cheese: oscypki, small redykołki, smoked gołki, bundz and bryndza;
• woollen socks, mittens, jumpers and sheepskin goods — PKL recommends this as the place to buy genuine woollen socks;
• ciupagi (highland walking axes), traditional ornaments and souvenirs with Zakopane motifs.

A glossary of highland cheeses

To find your way around the stalls, it helps to know the names listed by the Tatra National Park. Bundz (bunc) is a fresh white cheese made from sheep's or mixed milk. Bryndza is bundz matured for a few days and ground with salt; bryndza podhalańska was the first to receive an EU certificate. Brusek is a cylinder-shaped smoked cheese. Redykołka is a small smoked cheese, often shaped like an animal, which shepherds once handed out during the autumn redyk. Żentyca is sheep's-milk whey, sweet or sour.

How to tell a genuine oscypek

Oscypek has EU protected status. According to the Tatra National Park, it is made from sheep's milk or a mixture with no more than 40% cow's milk; the real cheese is shaped like a double cone 17–23 cm long and weighs 0.6–0.8 kg, and one oscypek takes about 7 litres of milk. Sheep are milked in spring and summer and stop giving milk in autumn, so fresh genuine oscypek is a seasonal product. Similar-looking smoked cheeses made from cow's milk are called gołka — tasty too, but a different product. If you want sheep's cheese from a particular baca, it is best bought straight from a shepherd's hut on the pasture — for example in the Kościeliska Valley or at Kalatówki.

Practical information

The market is in central Zakopane on Na Gubałówkę street, a continuation of Krupówki; it is a few minutes' walk from the town centre. Next to it is the lower station of the Gubałówka funicular (ul. Na Gubałówkę 4). Entry is free. No official opening hours are published, as each stall trades separately; it is busiest in the summer season and over the winter holidays. Prices are set by the sellers; bring cash, as there is no official information about card payment. The market is level and pushchair-friendly, but crowded at peak times.

Nearby

Take the funicular up Gubałówka for a Tatra panorama, stroll along Krupówki or visit the old Pęksowy Brzyzek cemetery. Next to the market is the Gwarno brewpub.

Photos: Cybularny, CC0, Wikimedia Commons; Rosser1954 Roger Griffith, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons; Aga Viburno, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.