It a valuable example of the “health and spa style”.

History

The villa was built probably shortly after 1864, in the early period of operation and development of the health resort, owing to the efforts of the originator and first owner of the resort, Julian Zubrzycki. It was marked on the plans of Rabka in 1880 and 1888. In the prime time of the resort, it was inhabited by the intelligentsia and landowners of Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland who would arrive in Rabka as patients. After 1945 the villa was adapted for other purposes. Today, it houses several institutions, such as a library and the Polish Association of the Blind. 

Description

The villa is situated in a park, on a slope facing west. It is an outstanding example of the “health and spa style”, with rich architectural and woodcarving details and Tyrolean and Swiss architectural features. It is a detached, two-bay, five-axis house built on a rectangular plan, partially with a basement. The building is a two-level structure with a habitable attic and a two-level porch at the front. An annex at the back and a porch at level one. It is covered with a gable roof with eaves supported on profiled rafter tips. The roofs of the two-level porch and gable outbuildings with sliders, with panes protruding beyond the face, supported by angle braces. The villa is wooden and set on a levelling brick foundation, boarded horizontally with overlaying planks. The roof is tiled. The façades are uniform, boarded horizontally, articulated with a cordon cornice profiled in wood and running between the ground floor and the first floor. The front façade has five axes, with a knee wall filled with alternating diagonal, horizontal, and vertical boarding. The central avant-corps has a two-level porch supported by wooden pillars. Above, it is tied with three-leaf traceries cut out in boards; the porch balustrades are made of openwork cut boards. The porch abutment has a knee wall filled with decorative formwork. On both sides of the porch, in the roof plane, there are two dormers covered with small roofs similar to that of the porch. The rear façade has five axes and an avant-corps. The south side of the house has two axes. It is hidden behind an avant-corps with a porch on the first floor and a balustrade of openwork cut boards. The north façade has a balcony on the first floor, asymmetrically hanging at the north-east corner. It is covered with a shed roof on poles with decorative heads cut in the board. The building has a panelled door joinery and six-light, double-leaf windows. A wooden staircase inside.

The structure can be accessed from inside and outside.

Author of the note Olga Dyba, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 15/02/2016

Bibliography

• Matuszczyk A., Trybowska E., Rabka i okolice. Przewodnik i informator turystyczny, Rabka Zdrój 2001.
• Beiersdorf Z., Krasnowolski B., Rabka studialne materiały konserwatorskie, mps. Kraków 1978.