Zbigniew Moździerz

The first documented mentions of Zakopane come from the early 17th century. From the late 1830s, climatic medicine contributed to the development of Zakopane as a summer and spa town. Acceleration of development occurred at the end of the 19th century as a result of the popularisation of the town’s climatic values. In 1886, the town obtained the status of climate station. At that time, the Swiss style of architecture was becoming widespread for summer buildings and Stanisław Witkiewicz back to the beginning of the battle for the ‘highlander style’ in local architecture. Another ‘civilisational leap’ occurred at the beginning of the 20th century, after the railway was brought to Zakopane itself. In the centre of the village, brick buildings began to appear.

In the interwar period, there was an increase in construction in Zakopane, which forced the local authorities to develop another regulatory plan (designed by K. Stryjeński from 1924 to 1928). Dynamic development led to the granting of municipal rights in 1933. The architecture of this period was initially dominated by the historicism of the 1920s, then by the art déco movement and the Zakopane style, and in later years, by functionalism and free functionalism – new regionalism. During the occupation, the Germans made Zakopane a recreational town. As part of the so-called order action, in the years 1940–1942 a number of wooden and brick buildings were demolished. New buildings were also built. In Podhale as the official current of socialist realist architecture was the new Zakopane style. The most characteristic examples include shelters in the Polish Tatras. The city developed as a health resort and a centre for sport and tourism.

After the administrative reform of the country (1975), Zakopane found itself within the province of Nowy Sącz. Architecture from this period mainly presents late modernism and socmodernism. In the 1980s, the third concept of Zakopane regulation was developed. For the first time, it included monument protection. At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, postmodern architecture appeared in Zakopane along with political changes. In 1994, the local general spatial development plan for the city was adopted. In 1998, a study on the conditions and directions of the spatial development of the city of Zakopane was adopted. Twenty-first century Zakopane architecture was dominated by large buildings, hotels and apartment buildings.