Together with the nearby Stamary Hotel, Marilor was a “doorway” to the city from the railway station. The turbulent history of the place did not affect the building significantly, and it has survived in a relatively good condition to this day. The building, of an unknown designer, would stand out against the town’s architecture and design models known in Zakopane. The Villa Marilor residence was intended to be stunning. Anyway, Marilor is a unique fusion of the local Zakopane style and Tyrolean architecture. It triggers associations with the tradition of the most famous European resorts, for example, Baden near Vienna.

History

Marilor was built in 1905 on a large, wooded plot, previously owned by the well-known social activist Dr Ignacy Baranowski. Before 1877 Baranowski purchased it from the owner, the German baron and Berlin banker, co-founder of the Polish Tatra Society and the Tatra Museum in Zakopane Ludwik Eichborn. In 1905 Baranowski started to considering returning to Warsaw permanently, so he sold the plot to Ignacy Szczeniowski, a factory owner and landowner from Kapuściany in the Bracławszczyzna region. After his marriage to Laura Gadomska, Szczeniowski built Marilor according to an unknown, probably Austrian, design. Some researchers suggest that author of the design was a local architect, for example, Eugeniusz Wesołowski who worked for the Szczeniowski family in the early 1920s. The property in Zakopane comprised several separate plots, including the one with the doctor’s wooden villa but also another one with a small wooden house in ul. Jagiellońska (today ul. Kościuszki 20) and farm buildings. In 1914 Wojciech Kossak rented the wooden house from the Szczeniowskis. The artist’s studio was located opposite and had been designed by Tadeusz Stryjeński. Today, this area is occupied by a coach station. The family’s summer house, after the loss of their property in the east in 1918, became the family home. However, during the crisis period, it began to be used as a luxury guesthouse. It hosted army officers, landowners, politicians, and writers. The Szczeniowskis lived in the nearby Myszka Villa. During WW2, the German city military command and apartments for senior officers were installed in Marilor. After the war, the villa was nationalised and served as a holiday house (nicknamed Czajka) for the communist Union of Polish Youth. In October 1956, Marilor was taken over by revolted youth. They demanded that the building seat the High School of Fine Arts. Antoni Kenar co-organised and led the march to the vacated holiday house. The occupation of the building lasted until a positive decision of the Municipal National Council to allocate the building to the school. Antoni Kenar’s school was housed in Marilor until re-privatisation in 1995. However, the Szczeniowski family’s descendants maintained an apartment in the house for many years. At the time of the ownership transformation, the villa was entered in the register of monuments pursuant to Decision No. A-766 of 14 February 1995. The heirs of the owners, having recovered the property seized by the communist authorities, sold the residence. The new owner, ZETWU INWEST HOTELE MARILOR Sp. z o.o., completed a thorough renovation the property in the years 2000-2001. The author of the design was Krzysztofa Kiełba.

Description

Marilor is a large, brick building with a basement. The number of storeys vary. It has a habitable loft. It was built on a rectangular plan with avant-corps in the longer façades and a terrace at the ground floor level and on the first floor (south and south-west). Arched balconies were used to enrich the façade. The residential section is set on a high base of freely arranged granite slabs. Marilor is covered by a mansard roof (above the avant-corpses) and a gable roof (in the middle part) with three dormers. In the south-east corner, there is a kind of tower (raised by one storey) which offered a magnificent view of the Tatra Mountains and the valley. The south façade is asymmetrical. It has an elegant entrance and stairs. The windows have the form of upright rectangles closed with a straight or full arch, double- or triple-panel. The stone balustrades on the terraces, at the first floor level combined with metal elements. The north facade is also asymmetrical. It has four axes and articulated entrances (a two-storey and one-storey extension covered by a gable roof). In the central part (staircase), the avant-corpse is closed with a soft form of a stretched C-profile with a central protrusion. The dormers of the south façade are closed with the same line. The east and west façades are asymmetrical and without any details. The property was equipped lavishly. The original window and door joinery had survived until the last renovation carried out by the Telefonika company. The glamorous hall with a coffered ceiling and impressive stairs attracted particular attention. Much attention was paid to details, such as bathroom fittings. Until the invasion of the 21st-century greed, the bathroom of the landlady had survived with original tiles, porcelain and a floor-sunken bathtub. The villa was accompanied by brick outbuildings (on the north side), in which Szczeniowski, a passionate inventor, installed the first power plant in Zakopane. The whole edifice was surrounded by a park created out of the remnants of the former forest. The standing timber was predominantly beech.

Open daily (available restaurant, café, park).

Author of the note Roman Marcinek, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 19/03/2015

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