Zakopane tourist attractions, street by street

Most Zakopane tourist attractions start or end on Krupowki, the promenade the City of Zakopane calls the town's showcase street, about 1 km long.¹ It takes its name from a glade that once belonged to the Krupa family.⁵ Today it is a strip of restaurants, souvenir stalls and grilled cheese, busy from morning until late. Walk it once for the atmosphere, then use it as a corridor to the quieter streets on either side.

Two stops on Krupowki are worth leaving the crowd for. The brick main building of the Tatra Museum was built in 1913-1922 to a design by Stanislaw Witkiewicz and Franciszek Maczynski, and holds exhibitions on the region's history, ethnography and natural history.⁶ Further up, the Count Zamoyski Municipal Art Gallery at Krupowki 41 is among the oldest art galleries in Poland.⁷

At the top of the promenade stands a monument to Dr Tytus Chalubinski with the figure of Sabala beneath him. Jan Krzeptowski Sabala was a mountain guide, hunter, storyteller and folk musician who guided artists across the Tatras in the 19th century.⁸ The pair explain a good deal of what follows: the doctors, writers and painters who came for the mountain air and stayed to shape the town.

Koscieliska is the oldest street in Zakopane, lined with historic wooden houses from the 19th century.⁴ At its start stands the wooden Old Church of Our Lady of Czestochowa, built in 1847.¹⁰ Next to it are the Gasienica family chapel, the oldest church building in Zakopane, and the Old Graveyard at Peksowy Brzyzek.²⁵ The church and the graveyard are open freely, except during services.²⁰

The cemetery is a deeply moving place. Those buried there include the poet Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, the writers Kornel Makuszynski and Wladyslaw Orkan, Stanislaw Witkiewicz and the artist Wladyslaw Hasior.²³ Alongside them lie mountain guides and rescuers under carved wooden crosses and stones that read like folk sculpture. Walk slowly, keep your voice down, and look at the inscriptions as well as the carving.

Every late summer the street holds a festival with horse-carriage rides and contests for the best home-made cake, the best cordial and the best traditional highland costume.²⁶ The rest of the year it is simply a good walk: from the Old Church past the wooden houses to Villa Koliba and on to the Zakopane-style museum in an old log house at Droga do Rojow. Allow an hour, more if you go inside.

The Wielka Krokiew ski jump was built into the slope of Mt Krokiew in 1925 to a design by Karol Stryjenski.¹³ World Cup ski jumping competitions are held there, and visitors can take the chairlift to the top or climb in about 15 minutes.²² The chairlift is 356.8 m long with a 133 m rise, and there is a cafe at the upper station.⁵³ Standing at the top of the inrun is the quickest way to understand what the jumpers face.

On the walk there you pass the headquarters of TOPR, the Tatra Volunteer Rescue Service, which dates back to 1909.¹² Save its emergency number, 601 100 300 or 985, before you hike.⁵⁴ From the foot of the ski jump, the Dolina Bialego valley is a short, easy trail to a waterfall about 30 minutes from the valley mouth.²⁴

In winter, Snowlandia beside the ski jump has a snow maze, an ice castle, beginners' slopes and sledding hills.⁵⁵ Sleigh rides with a bonfire, singing and regional treats are a winter favourite; the torchlit ride lasts about 1 hour.⁵⁶ Book these on the spot or through your accommodation, and dress for standing still in the cold, not for walking. Watching a jump weekend is one of the Zakopane activities that costs little and stays in the memory.

Zakopane has a darker chapter too. During the occupation the Gestapo held prisoners in the basements of Hotel Palace; around 250 people were killed there, and a small museum opened in 1994.⁶² It is a short, sober visit, and the stories of the Tatra couriers who crossed the mountains in wartime are told there.

Zakopane was granted its town charter in 1933.¹⁴ By then the painter Rafal Malczewski had already named interwar Zakopane the hub of the world, for the artists and writers who gathered there.⁶³ The first settlers may have arrived in the 15th century, clearing spruce for glades, and the clans Gasienica, Topor and Jarzabek held the first settlements.⁹

That mix of highland roots and artists' town is what makes Zakopane more than a gateway to the mountains. Give the town one unhurried day: the museum in the morning, Koscieliska and the cemetery after lunch, Jaszczurowka or the ski jump in the late afternoon, and Gubalowka for the evening light.