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1

Od szałasu do apartamentowca

100%

Moździerz Z.

Góry, Literatura, Kultura

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2015

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vol. 9

93 - 115

EN

Today’s Zakopane came into being thanks to a combination of two different economic factors — agricultural-pastoral settlement at the foot of Gubałówka (end of the 15th century) centring around the village green (located in the eastern part of Kościeliska Street and constituting the oldest part of the village of Zakopane), and industrial settlement in the mining and foundry village in today’s Kuźnice (around the mid-18th century). The two centres communicated via Krupówki, a street originally stretching from the junction of Kościeliska and Nowotarska Streets as far as the Huty Hamerskie ironworks. Thus the mixing of various economic interests in the Tatra Mountains was from the very beginning at the heart of Zakopane’s development. Shepherds from the village of Niżne Podhale grazing their sheep in Tatra pastures built shacks and chalets. This was the beginning of folk architecture in the region. The first architectural forms different from the folk tradition were brought by miners and foundry workers probably as early as in the 17th century. Folk architecture acquired distinctive stylistic forms at the turn of the 19th century, and manorial and industrial architecture — in the early 19th century. At the beginning of the 19th century the Tatra Mountains also attracted tourists, while Tatra climate began to be perceived as having therapeutic properties. Thus Zakopane became a tourist and health resort attracting growing numbers of tourists, holidaymakers and patients. This was conducive to the evolution of both tendencies in Zakopane — folk and then regional architecture (folk architecture from the Podhale region, Zakopane style, second Zakopane style, new regionalism and free functionalism, new Zakopane style and modern regionalism) were developing alongside a cosmopolitan trend (classicism, Swiss style, historicism and eclecticism, modernism and functionalism, socialist modernism and late modernism). This early differentiation of architectural forms in the region has influenced the way Zakopane looks today and constitutes an ever-recurring dilemma both for planners formulating architectural guidelines to be followed in the designs, and for architects preparing documentation for buildings constructed in the town — a regional or universal architecture? This also applies to the problem of protecting historic buildings in Zakopane.

2

Jan Kasprowicz i styl zakopiański

100%

Moździerz Z.

Góry, Literatura, Kultura

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2014

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vol. 8

85 - 103

EN

It is by no means easy to present Jan Kasprowicz’s links to the Zakopane style, because Kasprowicz did not speak about the subject. Yet anybody visiting the museum dedicated to the poet in the Harenda villa will certainly note the Zakopane-style furniture — a dresser, clock, table and chairs in the dining room as well as a table and four chairs in room housing the exhibition of Władysław Jarocki’s paintings. The villa itself also represents an architectural form of a simplified Zakopane style or, more precisely, regional architecture from the Podhale region, which emerged under the influence of the Zakopane style. Jan Kasprowicz was a leading representative of the Young Poland movement, the chronological framework of which corresponds almost exactly to the beginnings and development of the Zakopane style: 1890–1918. Kasprowicz came to Zakopane for the first time in July 1892 to spend his holidays there. This was exactly the time when the first Zakopane-style house, i.e. the Koliba villa, was being built. Another visit, in the summer of 1896, brought authentic friendship with Wojciech Brzega, a collaborator of the man who created the Zakopane style, Stanisław Witkiewicz. In 1898 the artists met again during Kasprowicz’s another summer visit to Zakopane. 1901 was marked by an exacerbation of the conflict over the Zakopane style, going on since the late 19th century, between the followers of Stanisław Witkiewicz and those of Edgar Kováts. This was caused by an exhibition of the oeuvre of the architect of the so-called Zakopane way. Kasprowicz sided with the followers of Witkiewicz, while Lviv architects sided with Kováts. He was also defended by his then student... Władysław Jarocki. Kasprowicz was familiar with the style and Stanisław Witkiewicz’s role in its creation, which could be seen during the unveiling of the Tytus Chałubiński monument in Zakopane in 1903, when he spoke on behalf of young artists. On this occasion he had an opportunity to meet Stanisław Witkiewicz and Zygmunt Gnatowski, chair of the Monument Committee and owner of the Koliba villa. On 10 September the poet visited the villa and his visit was recorded by an entry — in the form of a poem written especially for the occasion — in the host’s guest book. In 1903–1906 Kasprowicz frequently visited another promoter of the Zakopane style, the creator of the modern philosophy of nature conservation and owner of a flagship work of the Zakopane style — the “Pod Jedlami” house — Jan Gwalbert Pawlikowski. In 1906 the poet ordered Zakopane style furniture for his study in Poronin from Wojciech Brzega. This was during his extended stay in Stanisław Marduła Pawlica’s house. The architectural form of this building was an example of how Witkiewicz’s ideas influenced folk houses in the Podhale region. The furniture in question was later used in the library in the Harenda villa. There is also a photograph taken in the poet’s Lviv fl at during Kazimierz Twardowski’s visit. In it, both gentlemen lie on a huge bed covered by a Zakopane-style bedspread, with a stylish stool standing next to it. After Kasprowicz’s third marriage, to young Marusia Bunin, which took place in September 1911 in Dresden, the newlyweds spent their honeymoon in Poronin, staying at Ludwina and Józef Marduła Gał’s, a house to which they kept returning in subsequent years. It, too, was a wooden house, erected by highland carpenters in the Witkiewicz style. Another, indirect link to the Zakopane style could be found in the fundraising for the construction of the Tatra Museum, Stanisław Witkiewicz’s last work. In early 1923 the Kasprowiczs moved into Paweł Gut Mostowy’s pension in Poronin and later into Teresa Cudzich Skupień’s house in Biały Dunajec. Both buildings resembled Kasprowicz’s previous residences as well as well as his future villa in Harenda, which would be his own. The Harenda villa was built in 1920 by Jan Kluś Fudała and then bought by the English painter Winifred Cooper, from whom it was bought by Jan Kasprowicz in 1923. It housed the already mentioned library with Zakopane-style furniture. Less than two years after the purchase the poet died, on 1 August 1926. In 1933 the artist’s ashes were moved from the old cemetery to a mausoleum designed by the first revisionist of the Zakopane style, Karol Stryjeński, co-author of the success of Polish decorative art at the World Fair in Paris. The Mausoleum is an outstanding example of art déco in Poland. This trend — called “the style of regained independence” — was also the last national style in Polish art and a continuation of the Zakopane style. Yet this is not the end of the symbolic links between Jan Kasprowicz and the Zakopane style. When in 1935 the heavily mortgaged Koliba villa was put up for auction, some of its furnishings — a dresser, 4 tables and 6 chairs were bought by... Władysław Jarocki, Kasprowicz’s son-in-law, old opponent of Witkiewicz and supporter of Kováts. It could, therefore, be said that Jan Kasprowicz witnessed the birth of the Zakopane style from his very first visit to the region. Later, during the “dispute over the style,” he sided with Witkiewicz. There is no doubt that he liked to have Zakopane-style furniture around him, a fact evidenced by the furnishings of his successive flats: in Lviv, Poronin and, finally, his own house in Harenda. The poet’s earthly remains were put in a mausoleum which is an outstanding example of Polish decorative art, which represents the last Polish national style. Finally, after the poet’s death the first pieces of dining room furniture designed b y Witkiewicz found their way to Kasprowicz’s villa. This is the symbolic framework of the links between Jan Kasprowicz and the Zakopane style.

3

Willa Witkiewiczów w Zakopanem i jej znaczenie dla kultury polskiej

100%

Moździerz Z.

Góry, Literatura, Kultura

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2013

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vol. 7

69 - 88

EN

The information published about the history of the “Witkiewicz villa,” initially known as “Na Antołówce,” has been very superficial and often incorrect. Usually Stanisław Witkiewicz, the inventor of the Zakopane style, is credited with the building design, while his sister, Maria Witkiewicz or his nephew, Jan Witkiewicz Koszczyc, are given as the villa founders. The villa was indeed built by Jan Witkiewicz, but he was Stanisław’s elder brother and father of the architect Jan Witkiewcz Koszczyc, who designed the house, probably under his uncle Stanisław’s supervision. The first design of Jan Witkiewicz’s villa was made in Munich, where Jan Witkiewicz Koszczyc studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Königlich Bayerische Technische Hochschule. Stanisław Witkiewicz took charge of the organisation of the construction works, using the trusted Wojciech Roj. The construction of the villa lasted from September 1903 till March 1905, when Jan Witkiewicz the father moved in with his sister Maria (aunt Mery) and daughter Maria (Dziudzia). A stylish servant’s cottage and a well were built at the same time. In 1911 the villa was presented during the Podhale Exhibition in Lviv (drawings and photographs). Jan Witkiewicz died in 1920 and the house went to Jan Witkiewicz Koszczyc and his sister Maria Witkiewicz (Dziudzia). In December 1931, after the death of his mother, Maria Witkiewicz, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) moved into the villa. Both Marias Witkiewicz disapproved of Witkacy’s behaviour and he, likewise, did not tolerate their eccentricities. This caused constant smaller or bigger conflicts. The artist’s guests would stay in the villa from time to time. For example, in October 1937, Hans Cornelius, the famous German philosopher, stayed there for three days. Witkacy stayed in the house nearly till the outbreak of WWII. This is where his last two self-portraits were made. On the night of 22–23 August 1939 he painted his last self-portrait, today considered to be a kind of testament. On 18 September he committed suicide in the village of Jeziory in Ukraine. Even before the outbreak of the war, both Marias Witkiewicz left for Warsaw, leaving the villa at the disposal of Mrs Jarosławska and Aleksandra Zagórska, Lieutenant Colonel of Polish Armed Forces, soldier of Polish Legions. Maria (Mery) Witkiewicz died in Warsaw in 1940. Soon after the war, on 13 October 1946, the villa and its surroundings were registered as historical buildings. In 1948 Jan Witkiewicz Koszczyc and his sister Maria (Dziudzia) Witkiewicz rented the villa to the Warsaw Branch of the Association of Art Historians, which established a House for Artists there. In 1956 the tenancy was taken over by the General Construction Research and Design Centre from Warsaw and the Trade Union of the Construction Industry Workers. In 1958 roofing tiles were replaced with a shingle roof. Jan Witkiewicz Koszczyc died in the same year in Warsaw, followed by Maria (Dziudzia) Witkiewicz four years later, in 1962. In 1965 the heirs — Jan’s son Rafał Witkiewicz and daughter Henryka Szandomirska née Witkiewicz — sold the villa to the Board of the Trade Union of the Construction and Building Materials Industry Workers. In 1970 the new owners carried out repair works and modernised the building, and constructed another villa in the vicinity – the form of the “Witkiewicz Villa II” clashed with that of the historical first villa. In 1985 a small exhibition devoted to Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz was organised in one of the rooms with the help of the Tatra Museum. In 1989 the villa became the property of the Board of the Federation of Independent Self-Governing Trade Unions of the Construction Industry Workers, which set up a training and holiday centre in it. Three years later, in 1992, the property was bought by the Energopol joint-stock company, which one year later built four weekend cottages, designed by Andrzej Orłowski and Maciej Krawczyński, in the western part of the plot. Their architecture was perfectly matched with the original villa in the Zakopane style. In 2000 the villa was bought by Anna and Jerzy Starek from Warsaw. One year later thorough repair, conservation and modernisation works were carried out in accordance with designs by the same pair of architects — Andrzej Orłowski and Maciej Krawczyński. In 2011 the “Witkiewicz Villa II” was pulled down. There are plans to construct a new building in its place, a building that would be better matched with its historical surroundings.

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Od szałasu do apartamentowca

Jan Kasprowicz i styl zakopiański

Willa Witkiewiczów w Zakopanem i jej znaczenie dla kultury polskiej