Zalipie – The Most Beautiful Village in Poland
A small ancient village in South-Eastern Poland, Zalipie, is definitely one of the country’s top tourist attractions. Not because it has five-stars hotels or massive glass buildings, but on the contrary, due to its small wooden cottages, which are painted in the most vibrant colors.
This lovely tradition started with more than a century ago, when every single female resident in Zalipie begun to paint her home with floral motives, as she wanted to cover up some particular faults. And since the women didn’t have professionally made equipment, they manufactured the brushes themselves, using hair from the tails of their cows. As or the paint itself, women used fat from the dumplings they made. Very important is that each year, all the women had to repaint their charming drawings. And they did so, after the Feast of Corpus Christi, when they weren’t so busy with their farm work.
In time, this joyfully and unique habit was passed on from one generation to another. Moreover, women found inspiration in nature and local folklore, so their paintings became both larger and more colorful.
One woman in particular became really obsessed with this tradition. Her name was Felicja Curylowa (1904 – 1974) and she decorated every surface of her three-bedroomed cottage, no matter how small or large. After her death, the beautiful house was turned into a museum. And it is quite a source of attraction among tourists!
Currently, Zalipie is considered one of the most picturesque villages in Poland. But, despite its beauty and unique tradition, Zalipie is not invaded by tourists.
Going there is not only a perfect way to escape the busy life found in large cities or towns, but also a good, relaxing manner to simply enjoy life and art.
In other words, Zalipie can be seen as a massive painting, full of color, life and history. The whole village is painted. Even the dog’s cages or old fountains, not to mention fences, windows and interior walls. It’s a real delight!
And the perfect time to visit Zalipie is spring, as during this season, since 1948, the village hosts an important contest: the Painted Cottage competition or “Malowana Chata”. It started after the World War II ended, in the local authorities attempt to cover up the damage done the war. Official data shows that more than 17% of Poland’s population died in the war.
Location: Gmina Olesno, Lesser Poland, Dąbrowa County, Poland
– via kuriositas.com
Discover more from Unusual Places
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Sublime et très approprié pour le catalogue de Gudrun Sjödén
THIS IS AMAZING. I want to visit. More than that the beauty of these artisans in SOUL shines forth to brighten the world and show how living a life in line with LOVE works out….perfectly. PEACE is achieved when you live your passion..with humility and Love. THANK YOU FOR THIS …Merri
True.
calm down
Hi
I am from Kerala state in India. Such a beautifull country side. If God allows me, I will visit Poland some day with my family.
What a country side you . They are with heavenly beauty
How can you call this beautiful when rabbits are kept in cramped hutches, and a dog lies on concrete, chained to a wall without even a blanket?
what has one to do with the other? Is a sunset or sunrise not beautiful even though people are dying in wars? Is a flower not beautiful because children are dying of hunger for no reason at all except poverty? Is a small child’s laugh of delight not beautiful because there is pollution and poisons in our air and water and food? What a bleak world you must live in if you cannot see beauty because there is ugliness in the world.. there is and always will be ugliness, it’s the awareness of what beauty is that motivates people to change and move towards it.
Pam, great words, so agree with you.
They paint to cover some faults (not ugly)- “….every single female resident in Zalipie begun to paint her home with floral motives, as she wanted to cover up some particular faults.”
What a wonderful reply. God bless you, we need more people who can actually SEE that.
Well spotted. This is the unfortunate reality of Polish countryside; a lot of people don’t treat animals as we’d wish them to. Luckily this is slowly changing for the better.
You’ve never been to the country, have you?
Hey Baba – – did you ever think that possibly it is for the dog’s own best interests that it is chained up. It could be a dog that is going to chase every moving wheel in sight and get run over. That happened to my own dog!
Give it a break Baba, you focus on one thing and put blinders on to the beauty. The rabbit in the cage probably has a much nicer life than the poor rabbit in the wild. He’s fed and kept warm and has nothing to worry about but they were talking about the beauty of the painted buildings. Are you one of those people that have to turn everything into a bad thing? Do you have to rain on everyone else’s parade?
What? You mean in comparison to the Western world where animals are treated like cute little toys and kept as house pets? There is nothing more cruel than keeping rabbits in a house without the run of a garden or dressing a dog in clothes but that’s the pet industry for you. Make out the animal can’t survive without human intervention to make profit. The animals in the photos are either for food or protection and are not pets. Considering animals in the pet trade are put down if they aren’t bought or turned into handbags and dog food I can’t say which treatment is worse.
Hey Baba… that dog is a GUARD sheepdog, not a in-house pet and I can only see one or two rabbits in each hutches, and it must in the early morning that rabbits are still in their hutches.
Baba, you haven’t noticed the bliss of chicks ans hens running free though. ..Pam, great explanation !
No, no. Ilość “świętych obrazków” przypadających na 1 metr kwadratowy ścian jest doprawdy imponująca. Szkoda mi jedynie tego biednego psiny na uwięzi. Ale jaka religia – taki stosunek do zwierząt.
Don’t be ridiculous! Religion has nothing to do with cruelty towards animals!
Great place, lovely paintings. Looks like relaxing mandala. I would love to see it