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Zakopane's history and the Górale highlanders

A shepherds' village for centuries, a resort for barely 150 years — and the highlanders were here first.

Last reviewed: 2026-11-02

Zakopane makes more sense once you know it was a remote shepherding village for most of its history and a fashionable resort for only about 150 years. The carved wooden houses, the fiddle music in the restaurants on Krupówki and the smoked cheese on every stall are not décor laid on for tourists — they come from the Górale, the highlanders of Podhale, whose culture the resort grew up around and, in places, over.

This is the short version: who the Górale are, how a Warsaw doctor turned the village into a health resort, what the twentieth century did to it, and where you can still see the older layers today.

Settlers and shepherds

The highlanders of Podhale took shape as a distinct people from the 14th century, when Polish settlers from Lesser Poland pushed up the valleys and met Vlach shepherds who had been moving along the Carpathian arc from the Balkans. The Vlachs brought a kind of farming the lowlands had no use for: grazing sheep and cattle on high mountain pasture through the summer. The two groups merged, and what came out was neither — a mountain culture with its own dialect, Polish at root but full of Slovak, Hungarian and Balkan borrowings that many lowland Poles still struggle to follow.

Shepherding shaped nearly everything else. Its best-known survivor is oscypek, the spindle-shaped smoked cheese on every stall: made from at least 60% sheep's milk, first recorded in 1416 and protected by the EU since 2008. The shepherd's axe — walking stick, tool and, when needed, weapon — became a symbol in its own right, as did the heavy wool trousers embroidered with the heart-shaped parzenica pattern.

Brigands, rebels and a stubborn streak

Mountain life was poor and hard to police, and from the mid-16th century until the 19th the western Carpathians had their zbójnicy — bands of highland robbers. Folk memory turned them into Robin Hoods who robbed the rich to help the poor. The most famous, Juraj Jánošík, actually came from Terchová on the Slovak side and is claimed as a hero on both sides of the border. Whether the songs are fair to the real robbers is another question, but you will hear them.

The independent streak had a political edge too. In February 1846 highlanders from Chochołów and neighbouring villages rose against Austrian rule, meaning to join the Kraków Uprising — the message calling it off never reached them. The Chochołów Uprising lasted three days; around 150 people were arrested and given long prison terms or death sentences, and were freed only in the upheavals of 1848.

The doctor who put Zakopane on the map

The earliest documents mention Zakopane in the 17th century, as a clearing called Zakopisko; by 1818 it had about 1,800 inhabitants. What changed it was Tytus Chałubiński, a Warsaw physician who came on holiday with his family in July 1873 and kept coming back. He promoted the mountain air as a cure and set up tuberculosis sanatoria here, co-founded the Tatra Society that same summer, and spent his seasons botanising and walking the ridges with the highland fiddler and storyteller Jan Krzeptowski, known as Sabała. The two share a monument in the town centre.

Painters, writers and more doctors followed. The Tatra Museum opened in 1889, the railway arrived on 1 October 1899, and by 1930 about 60,000 visitors a year were coming — though Zakopane only received town rights in 1933. Winter sport came in force: the Wielka Krokiew ski jump opened in 1925, the Nordic World Ski Championships were held here in 1929, 1939 and 1962, and the Kasprowy Wierch cable car was completed in 1936. That run is where the 'winter capital of Poland' label comes from.

Zakopane Style: a national architecture from highland timber

The most visible thing the resort era left behind is architectural. Around 1890 the painter and critic Stanisław Witkiewicz decided that the log houses of Podhale — steep roofs, carved gables, heavy timber — could be the basis of a modern Polish style, and added Art Nouveau touches on top. His first building, Villa Koliba, went up in 1892–93; Villa Pod Jedlami (1897) and the chapel at Jaszczurówka (1904–08) followed. Koliba has housed the Museum of Zakopane Style since 1993, and if you only visit one museum in town, make it this one.

Music got similar treatment. The composer Karol Szymanowski lived in Villa Atma, now a museum, and built his ballet Harnasie on highland melodies — the same fiddle-led music you will hear, louder and less polished, in the restaurants along Krupówki.

War, the national park and the pope

Under German occupation, Nazi race theorists tried to declare the highlanders a separate 'Goralenvolk' — not Polish, and supposedly of Germanic stock — to split them from the rest of the country. The scheme found its collaborators, but many highlanders joined the Polish resistance instead. The Gestapo's former headquarters in Zakopane, known as the Palace, is now a museum of the occupation run by the Tatra Museum.

After the war the mountains themselves were protected. Tatra National Park was created in 1954, and in 1992 the Polish and Slovak parks were jointly designated a UNESCO transboundary biosphere reserve. It is now the most-visited national park in Poland, which is why Morskie Oko parking is sold online in advance and why the popular trails can feel like a queue in August.

The newest landmark is religious: the Our Lady of Fatima sanctuary at Krzeptówki, built between 1987 and 1992 as a votive offering for John Paul II's survival of the 1981 assassination attempt, and consecrated by the pope himself during his visit in June 1997.

What's still real, and what's for show

More than you might expect from Krupówki on a Saturday. Highlander families still run many of the guesthouses and the horse carts on the Morskie Oko road, and the dialect is spoken, not staged. The honest caveat is that the town also sells a theme-park version of itself: plastic shepherd's axes, 'oscypek' in December (the real thing is only made from late April to early October), and folk evenings pitched at coach parties.

The older layers are easy to find if you step off the main strip. The wooden Old Church and the Cemetery of the Meritorious at Pęksów Brzyzek — where Chałubiński is buried — are a short walk from the top of Krupówki, and Villa Koliba is a few minutes further along the same street.

Where to see it today

If you'd rather cover several of these in one day with transport sorted, the most-booked option is Cable car, Chochołów baths & cheese tasting.

Booking links are affiliate links — we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.

Questions people actually ask

Who are the Górale?

The highlanders of southern Poland's mountain regions — around Zakopane, the Górale of Podhale. They emerged from the 14th century as Polish settlers mixed with Vlach shepherds moving along the Carpathians, and kept a distinct dialect, dress, music and sheep-herding way of life that still shapes the region.

Why is Zakopane called the winter capital of Poland?

Because it has been Poland's main winter-sports town for a century: the Wielka Krokiew ski jump opened in 1925, the Kasprowy Wierch cable car was completed in 1936, and the town hosted the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1929, 1939 and 1962.

What is Zakopane Style architecture?

A style created by Stanisław Witkiewicz around 1890, based on Podhale's wooden highland houses — steep roofs, carved gables and log walls — with Art Nouveau touches. The first example is Villa Koliba (1892–93), which has been the Museum of Zakopane Style since 1993.

Who made Zakopane a resort?

Largely Tytus Chałubiński, a Warsaw doctor who first holidayed there in July 1873, promoted the mountain climate as a cure, set up tuberculosis sanatoria and co-founded the Tatra Society. The railway's arrival in 1899 then made it reachable for everyone else.

Sources

Cable car, Chochołów baths & cheese tasting Book on Viator