Jan Kasprowicz Museum

Editor's review

There is an interesting story behind Villa Harenda, a traditional wooden cottage in Zakopane, where museum of Jan Kasprowicz is located. Jan Kasprowicz, the famous Polish poet, playwright and a the most prominent representative of the Young Poland artistic current, bought it from a British painter, Winifred Cooper for money that he was paid for translating Shakespeare’s plays. The facility was not a museum those days, but just an apartment. Kasprowicz used to joke that “his house was founded by some English poet, whose name was Shakespeare or something like that”.

Twenty-four years after Kasprowicz’s death, his widow, Maria, decided to establish a museum in the building, however keeping it in an unchanged form still. A narrow entrance path leads through to a wooden patio, which is actually an excellent mountain viewpoint. The house consists of three rooms: a living room, a bedroom and a dining room. Visitors can see family keepsakes, a part of the library, as well as paintings and everyday items that belonged to Kasprowicz family. Also worth attention is handmade wooden furniture.

On a first floor of Villa Harenda there is an art gallery established by Kasprowicz’s daughter, featuring an exhibition of paintings by Władysław Jarocki, a professor of Krakow Academy of Fine Arts.

In the picturesque forest surrounding of Villa Harenda, there is also a granite mausoleum of Jan Kasprowicz.

Editor
Editor & Zakopane Local