Old Church and Pęksowy Brzyzek Cemetery

On Kościeliska Street, a few minutes from Krupówki, stands a small larch-wood church, and behind it Zakopane's oldest cemetery. Together they form one of the most moving places in town: this is where Zakopane's history as a parish began, and where the people who made it famous now rest.

The church, known locally simply as the "old church", was built in 1847, funded by Klementyna Homolacs, owner of the Zakopane estate. Construction was led by the local carpenter Sebastian Gąsienica-Sobczak, and the church was dedicated to St Clement in honour of its founder. In 1850–1851 Zakopane's first parish priest, Father Józef Stolarczyk, enlarged the church and added the tower. The altars from the second half of the 19th century were carved by the folk artist Wojciech Kułach-Wawrzyńcok, and the high altar holds a copy of the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa, the church's patron since the 1930s. Since March 2022, Orthodox services have also been held here every other Sunday.

The cemetery was founded by the same Father Stolarczyk in 1851 on land donated by Jan Pęksa; in the highland dialect "brzyzek" means a bank above a stream. The gate was designed by Stanisław Witkiewicz. In 1931 the cemetery was listed as a monument and named the Cemetery of the Distinguished: since then only eminent people of Zakopane, the Tatras and Podhale are buried here. There are about 500 graves, around 250 of them of distinguished people.

What to see

The cemetery is a true gallery of highland art: almost every grave is unique — carved wooden crosses, small shrines, glass paintings, stone boulders and wrought-metal sculpture. Many works came from Władysław Hasior's workshop.

• Famous graves — the physician and "discoverer" of the Tatras Tytus Chałubiński, the highland storyteller and musician Jan Krzeptowski-Sabała, Stanisław Witkiewicz, the poets Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer and Władysław Orkan, the writer Kornel Makuszyński, the skier Stanisław Marusarz, and the sculptors Antoni Rząsa and Władysław Hasior.
• Witkacy's symbolic grave — the artist died in September 1939 in the village of Jeziory in Polesia (today Velyki Ozera in Ukraine's Rivne region). In 1988 remains were brought from there and buried here, but in 1994 it turned out they belonged to someone else.
• Memorials — to the Himalayan climber Maciej Berbeka, the ethnographer Bronisław Piłsudski, the composers Szymanowski and Karłowicz, and General Mariusz Zaruski, who died in 1941 in prison in Kherson.
• The masonry chapel next door (c. 1810) — the oldest religious building in Zakopane.

Practical information

The site is on Kościeliska Street, about 300 m from the lower end of Krupówki; it is an easy walk from the centre, and the lower station of the Gubałówka funicular is nearby. Since mid-2014 the parish has charged tourists a small entry fee, which goes towards restoring the graves; residents and families of those buried enter free. Every year on 1–2 November a collection is held here to save the wooden graves. This is a working cemetery and church, so keep quiet and be respectful, and do not enter the church during services. Paths are uneven, with roots and steps, which makes pushchairs and wheelchairs difficult. Allow 30–60 minutes.

Nearby

Next door are Villa Koliba, the first house in the Zakopane style, and the Tatra Museum. From here you can also stroll along Krupówki Street or take the funicular up Gubałówka.

Photos: Cybularny, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Edyta Koczenasz, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; tawa, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; MARELBU, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Fotonews, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, Wikimedia Commons; Kordiann, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Збигнев Вансел, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.