History

Ul. Kościeliska, at the intersection with today’s ul. Kaszelewskiego, saw the first development of Nowa Osada at the beginning of the 17th century. Its was later renamed Zakopane after of one of the local clearings. The oldest building in ul. Kościeliska is the brick chapel of Saints Andrzej Świerad and Benedict, funded by Paweł Gąsienica around 1800 and renovated in 1938.

Description

Another valuable property in ul. Kościeliska is the wooden church of Our Lady of Częstochowa, originally of St Clement. It was founded by the Homolacs family in 1847, and it was expanded in the years 1848-1851 by the first parish priest of Zakopane, the Rev. Józef Stolarczyk. Next to the church, there is the Old Cemetery in Pęksowy Brzyzek. It was set up in the mid-19th century on a plot donated to the parish by Jan Pęksa. The traditional, wooden rural buildings in ul. Kościeliska date back to the first half of the 19th century. The oldest, preserved house is the one owned by the Gąsienica Sobczak family from 1830. It can be found at Droga do Rojów 6. This complex of rural buildings consists of homesteads and cottages and features the typical Podhale region architecture. Some other noteworthy properties are: the U Wnuka inn (no. 8), built around 1845 by Józef Krzeptowski, Jan Sabała’s brother; the homestead of the Gąsienica Nawieś family (no.12) from 1853. In the 1880s, its famous residents were, among others, Tytus Chałubiński and Ferdynand Hoesick; the homestead of the Gąsienica Janiak family (no. 17) from before 1870; the homestead of the Gąsienica Walczak family (no. 23) from 1875; the cottage of the Janiak family (no. 37) from 1865; the homestead of the Gąsienica Bednarz family (no. 38) from around 1880; cottage no. 43 from 1846; the homestead of the Gąsienica Sieczka family (no. 52) from 1865; the homestead of the Majerczyk family (no. 66) from 1869; the cottage of the Walczak family (no. 76) from 1862; the homestead of the Walczak Wójciak family (no. 78) from 1883. The houses in Podhale were erected facing south and slightly to the east (“eleven o’clock”), and the farm buildings were set up perpendicularly to the house, most often from the west. This set-up was justified by the specific climate of Zakopane with strong west and south-west winds, especially in winter. In this way, the farm buildings shielded the residential section from the wind. The houses are built on a rectangular plan, usually one-bay with the so-called “white” room and a “black” room (with a stove) and a hallway (in most cases) on the axis. The interior would often be enlarged by extra chambers. A classic Podhale cottage was a two-room house with a hallway in the middle. The wooden log cottages have high, half-gable roofs covered with shingles or wooden laths. A characteristic feature of these cottages is the ornamentation of doors (“studded” doorframes topped with a semicircular arch), windows, ceiling beams, terminating beams, and porches. Later on, most of the preserved buildings received porches with gable or semi-gable roofs, as well as other functional elements. The highlanders’ houses from 100 and 150 years ago are still inhabited by the descendants of the Gąsienica, Walczak, and Sieczek families. The Tatra Museum have labelled the historical houses with information boards with the name of the first owner and the year of construction.

The site is accessible all year round.

Author of the note Olga Dyba, 11/07/2014

Bibliography

• Dyba O., Moździerz Z., Inwentaryzacja historyczno-urbanistyczna Zakopanego. Zakopane 1999 (documentation).
• Moździerz Z., Niebieskim szlakiem zabytków „muzeum przestrzennego”. Informator Muzeum Tatrzańskiego. Zakopane 2001, pp. 46-50.
• Krasnowolski B., Leksykon zabytków architektury Małopolski. Warsaw 2013, p. 307.