Free Walking Tour Zakopane: Villas, Ski Jump, Krupówki

Your Zakopane Walking Tour Stop by Stop: Villas, Ski Jump and Old Town Streets

1. 1

   Museum of Zakopane Style at Villa Koliba

   

   You start on Kościeliska street at a wooden villa that changed the look of a whole town. Villa Koliba, put up by local workers in 1892 and 1893, was the first building ever raised in Zakopane style, and it has been a registered Polish monument since 1983. The name comes straight from the Goral dialect of the region: a koliba is a shepherds' hut.

   That name hints at what the house was almost meant to be. Zygmunt Gnatowski needed somewhere to keep his collection of ethnographic objects and planned a simple hut modelled on the existing Podhale buildings. Stanisław Witkiewicz, already known as an artist, draughtsman and playwright, talked him out of it and into a house in a style that was only just taking shape.

   Witkiewicz had a mission. He had watched wealthy residents build houses in the Swiss folk style and wanted Poland to have its own rustic architecture instead. He drew on local decorative motifs, made the sketches for Koliba in 1891, and this villa became the first proof that his idea could stand as a real building.

   Inside, it has been the Museum of Zakopane Style since 4 December 1993. The five rooms in the original part are arranged as they were in Gnatowski's day: dining room, drawing room and bedroom on the ground floor, Gnatowski's own room and the servant's room on the top floor. His collection lives in the Tatra highlander's chamber, with furniture, utensils and craft objects made in Zakopane style around 1900, many to Witkiewicz's own designs. If you care about architecture or want to understand why so many houses in town look the way they do, this is the interior to choose.

   From here it is 1340 m, about 19 minutes, to Villa Atma, a house built in the same style a few years later that found a very different calling.

   Local name

   Willa Koliba

   Hours

   Mon, Wed, Thu, Sun 09:00–17:00, Fri–Sat 11:00–19:00, Tue closed

   Price

   28 PLN regular, 14 PLN reduced (permanent + temporary exhibitions); 25 PLN regular, 12 PLN reduced (permanent exhibition only)

   Website

   muzeumtatrzanskie.pl ↗

   Location

   Museum of Zakopane Style at Villa Koliba on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Villa Atma - Karol Szymanowski Museum

   

   At Kasprusie 19 stands Villa Atma, built in 1895 in Zakopane style by Józef Kasprusia-Stoch as a guesthouse. In 1925 and 1926 it was enlarged into the form you see and given its name: Atma is Sanskrit for soul. Today it is the only museum gathering the memorabilia of the composer Karol Szymanowski, run as a branch of the National Museum in Krakow.

   Szymanowski moved in during October 1930, and the house became his workshop. Here he finished writing and orchestrating his ballet Harnasie, and here he composed Veni Creator, the 12 Kurpian Songs, his Second Violin Concerto, the Litany to the Virgin Mary and two mazurkas for piano from opus 62.

   Atma was also a meeting place. The writers Julian Tuwim, Jan Lechoń, Kazimierz Wierzyński, Zofia Nałkowska and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz came, so did Witkacy, the painter Zofia Stryjeńska and the pianist Artur Rubinstein, among many others. In November 1935 Szymanowski left Zakopane and Poland for treatment at a sanatorium in Switzerland. He never came back to Atma.

   Turning his home into a museum took decades. The composer Michał Kondracki proposed it in 1937; after the Second World War his niece Krystyna Dąbrowska took up the cause, and a public campaign started by Zdzisław Sierpiński in the newspaper Życie Warszawy ran for nine years. A committee led by Jerzy Waldorff raised the money to buy the villa between 1972 and 1974, and after two years of renovation the museum opened on 6 March 1976. Among the guests was the dancer Serge Lifar, who came from Paris; in 1935 he had stayed at Atma preparing the title role in Harnasie for the Paris Opera.

   Most of the exhibits came from Dąbrowska, so go in if music or Polish interwar culture interests you. Next is the longest leg of the day: 2360 m, about 36 minutes, to the Wielka Krokiew Ski Jump.

   Local name

   Muzeum Karola Szymanowskiego w willi „Atma”

   Hours

   Tue–Sun 10:00–17:00, Mon closed

   Price

   18 PLN regular, 14 PLN reduced, 36 PLN family

   Website

   mnk.pl ↗

   Location

   Villa Atma - Karol Szymanowski Museum on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Wielka Krokiew Ski Jump

   

   Wielka Krokiew is the largest ski jump in Poland and one of only two large hills in the country, the other being the Adam Małysz hill in Wisła-Malinka. It sits at 1050 m above sea level on the slope of Krokiew mountain, a K125 hill with a size of HS140, and the forest shelters it from the wind.

   Look at where the run begins: this is a natural hill, with no artificially raised start tower. It was designed by the engineer Karol Stryjeński and opened on 22 March 1925 with a jumping competition. From 1932 it carried Stryjeński's name; since 1989 it has been named after the ski jumper Stanisław Marusarz. Today it belongs to the Olympic Preparation Centre in Zakopane, and the smaller Średnia Krokiew complex, named after Bronisław Czech, lies close by.

   The list of events is long. Ski jumping at the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1929, 1939 and 1962, the Winter Universiades of 1993 and 2001, the World Cup since the 1979/1980 season, the Nordic combined World Cup since 1998/1999. The first Polish championships in ski jumping were held here in 1927.

   Access to the site costs a fee; ask at the desk what the ticket includes. From here it is 1990 m, about 25 minutes, back into town and onto Krupówki.

   Hours

   Daily 09:00–18:00 (September); seasonal hours vary

   Price

   25 PLN regular, 20 PLN reduced

   Website

   zakopane.cos.pl ↗

   Location

   Wielka Krokiew Ski Jump on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Krupówki

   

   Krupówki is the main axis of Zakopane, named after the Krupówki glade. It begins at the junction with Nowotarska and Kościeliska streets and climbs for more than a kilometre to the junction with Zamoyskiego street and 3 Maja avenue. It is closed to cars and even bikes, so the whole street belongs to people on foot, and in the tourist and ski seasons it is packed.

   The street owes its existence to the ironworks in Kuźnice. What you walk on today dates from a rebuild that started in 1992 and divided locals and visitors: black basalt cobbles dug out from under the old asphalt, grey granite and red concrete pavers laid in playful patterns. Watch for the leaning street lamps shaped like bishops' crosiers on granite plinths. The architects were Maciej Krawczyński and Andrzej Orłowski.

   Most buildings hold shops, restaurants, hotels and pharmacies, and the street is full of carriage rides, photos with a white bear and souvenirs. Between them sit listed buildings such as the Holy Family church, the villas Staszeczkówka, Poraj and Zośka, the former Wood Industry School and the Bazar Polski house. The Hotel Morskie Oko has a story of its own: Witkacy began his stage work there, Helena Modrzejewska performed there and Jerzy Żuławski founded a literary cabaret in it.

   The crossing with Kościuszki street counts as the centre of Zakopane. Keep an eye out between the buildings: from some spots you can see Gubalowka and the Tatras, Giewont above all. The Tatra Museum is 400 m along the street, about 5 minutes away.

   Local name

   Ulica Krupówki

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Krupówki on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Tatra Museum

   

   At Krupówki 10 the Tatra Museum takes over. Where the street is all performance, this is the record: the museum that carries the mountains' name, with branches across town and this building as their main house.

   Treat it as your flexible stop. Go in when the weather turns, or when the bustle of Krupówki has worn you out; on a clear day you can walk past without guilt and save it for another visit.

   The Old Cemetery is 860 m away, about 11 minutes on foot.

   Local name

   Muzeum Tatrzańskie

   Hours

   Wed–Sun 10:00–18:00, Mon–Tue closed

   Price

   34 PLN regular, 17 PLN reduced (permanent + temporary exhibitions); 26 PLN regular, 13 PLN reduced (permanent exhibition only)

   Website

   muzeumtatrzanskie.pl ↗

   Location

   Tatra Museum on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   Cmentarz na Pęksowym Brzyzku (Old Cemetery)

   

   Back on Kościeliska street lies the first cemetery of Zakopane, founded in 1851 beside the church of St Clement by the town's first parish priest, Father Józef Stolarczyk. It takes its name from Jan Pęksa, who gave the land, and from the Goral word brzyzek, an escarpment above a stream. The gate was designed by Stanisław Witkiewicz, the same man behind Villa Koliba.

   There are about 500 graves here, 250 of them of people who shaped Zakopane, the Tatras and Podhale. Take your time with the headstones: almost every one is a unique piece of art, from small shrines and highlander crosses carved with Podhale motifs to paintings on glass and work in wood, metal and stone.

   The cemetery also carries political memory. After the Russian massacres in Warsaw and Vilnius in 1861, the local Homolacs family paid for a cross and a plaque in the centre, dedicated to the brothers innocently murdered there. A year later the authorities in Nowy Targ ordered the inscription removed.

   In 1908 a new cemetery opened on Nowotarska street, and at the end of 1931 the old one was listed as a monument and named the Cemetery of the Meritorious: from then on every burial needed the conservator's approval, and only people of special merit were laid here. After the Second World War it was in poor shape, with broken headstones and rotten crosses. For its centenary in the 1950s, Father Jan Tobolak had the stone wall restored with a dozen reliefs and the words: the homeland is the land and the graves; nations that lose their memory lose their life; Zakopane remembers.

   The funicular is just 250 m, about 4 minutes, away; on the way you pass the Targ pod Gubałówką highlander market.

   Hours

   Daily 08:00–17:00

   Price

   3 PLN regular, 1.50 PLN reduced

   Location

   Cmentarz na Pęksowym Brzyzku (Old Cemetery) on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   Gubalowka Funicular

   

   The route ends at the Gubalowka Funicular, which climbs the hill you may have spotted from Krupówki. It is run by Polskie Koleje Linowe, the Polish cable railway company whose head office also stands on Krupówki.

   The ride needs a ticket. Take it if you want to finish the day with the hill under your feet; otherwise this is where the walk ends, a few minutes from the market and the centre.

   Local name

   Kolej linowo-terenowa na Gubałówkę

   Hours

   Daily 08:00–21:30 (high season through 30 September)

   Price

   44 PLN regular, 35 PLN reduced (return online in high season); 49 PLN regular, 39 PLN reduced (return at ticket desk)

   Website

   pkl.pl ↗

   Location

   Gubalowka Funicular on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways to Walk Zakopane

Not everyone has a full day. The route splits cleanly into two halves, each with its own character.

Town centre only

Stops: 4, 5, 6, 7

For an afternoon or your arrival day: Krupówki, the Tatra Museum, the Old Cemetery and the funicular. About 1.5 km and 20 minutes of walking. Krupówki is free; the Tatra Museum and the cemetery charge entry, and the funicular ride needs a ticket.

Villas and the ski jump

Stops: 1, 2, 3

For architecture, music and sport fans: Villa Koliba, Villa Atma and Wielka Krokiew. 3.7 km and 55 minutes of walking. All three charge entry.

How Long Does This Zakopane Tour Take with the Museums?

The full route is 7.2 km with 1 h 39 min of pure walking. The longest leg is the 36 minutes from Villa Atma to Wielka Krokiew; the walks in the centre are short.

With visits inside Villa Koliba, Villa Atma and the Tatra Museum, time at the ski jump, a stroll along Krupówki and a slow round of the cemetery, plan about five and a half hours, with the funicular ride on top. The town centre variant takes a little over two hours with the Tatra Museum and the cemetery; the villas and ski jump variant fits into under three hours.

Before You Set Off at Villa Koliba

• Start: Recommended at the Museum of Zakopane Style at Villa Koliba. You can join at any stop.
• Finish: At the Gubalowka Funicular, where you can ride up the hill or call it a day.
• Time of day: Set off in the morning so the museums are open as you pass them and you reach Krupówki and the funicular in the afternoon.
• Entry: Krupówki costs nothing. Villa Koliba, Villa Atma, Wielka Krokiew, the Tatra Museum and the Old Cemetery charge entry, and the funicular needs a ticket; the current amounts are posted at each ticket desk.

Common Questions About Walking Zakopane