The Zakopane Style developed as a unique phenomenon.
In a remote village at the foot of the Tatra mountains at the end of the 19th century, a handful of Polish intelligentsia, together with the Tatra Highlanders from the Zakopane region, created a distinctive Polish national art-form.   This book documents their achievement alongside that of Stanislaw Witkiewicz, who dedicated a good part of his life and work to creating a national Polish style.  The result was the Zakopane Style, which embraced all elements of design.  Although not much remains today of the legacy of Stanislaw Witkiewicz and his circle of associates, its lasting importance and influence cannot be overestimated.

What survives includes a few wooden villas - amongst them the most important is Koliba (1892-1894), which features original furnishings from the late 1890's.  Witkiewicz's Zakopane Style also influenced church art and architecture - as illustrated by the altar and furnishings of the Chapel of St. John the Baptist in the Church of the Holy Family in Zakopane and the Chapel of the Sacred Heart in Jaszczurowka.  Witkiewicz and his associates also left a lasting body of work in handicrafts, furniture, fabrics, ceramics, stained-glass, lacework, jewelry, metalwork and many household items with a distinctive and immediately recognizable style associated with Zakopane.  This album explores the origins and the extraordinarily rich and varied results of the unique partnership of Witkiewicz and his Tatra Highlander associates in developing the Zakopane Style at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
 The album is published in a fully bilingual, Polish-English edition.