Visiting Poland’s Painted Village Zalipie

Zalipie is famous for it’s beautiful hand painted buildings decorated with folk art flowers. Flowers representative of the local flowers in gardens and meadows.

The painted village of Polandis located 80 km west of Krakow. Let us give you some ideas of who to get there and the highlights of Zalipie.

How to get to Zalipie, Poland’s Painted Village

• Hire Car to Zalipe – either hire a car for a day or for a few days. We flew into Krakow and got our hire car. We broke up the journey by staying in Hotel Zabawa. The hotel which is only 24 kilometers away from Zalipie (after a full day visiting the Wieliczka Salt Mine).
• Take an Uber or Taxi to Zalipie – if there are a few of you, a great idea to share the cost of taking an Uber or Taxi. Taxi from Krakow to Zalipie and basically create your own private tour.
• Guided Tour from Krakow to Zalipie – There are a few companies in Krakow which offer guided tours of Zalipie. These tour companies will pick you up from your hotel and spend about 5 hours getting to Zalipie. Exploring the beautiful village of Zalipie in a group. Of course it is cheaper to join a tour if you are single and they have a full bus. Groups usually consist of up to 8 people.

What is the history of Zalipie, Poland’s Painted Village?

• Black Houses – you might be familiar with the Black Houses of Scotland. The long low houses built without chimneys and the soot gathered within the house. Zalipie is no different. Traditionally the simple wooden houses of Zalipie had fires but no chimney which resulted in the root darkening the roof.
• Painted Ceilings – originally in the 18th century the ladies of the village began using whitewash. Painting patterns in the sooty ceilings to brighten up their home. Slowly these motifs start to cover more than the ceilings and moved onto the walls. Next the furniture and stoves when they arrived. Eventually the exterior walls of house was decorated and the rest is history!
• Why Flowers? – The flowers you find in the ornate folk art painted walls, ceilings and wells are inspired with the flowers found in the gardens and meadows of the area.

Zalipie Church

Best time to visit Zalipie, Poland’s Painted Village

• Summer – if you visit Zalipie in summer you will see the village in the full glory. Gardens bursting with flowers and buzzing with bees. This is the ideal complement to the beauty of the village
• Spring – in spring in Zalipie there is an annual competition to keep the tradition of the painted village alive. The Painted Cottage competition organised by the Museum in Tarnow and the Painters House. Approximately 90 people all over the district participate in the event.
• Felicja Curyio Household Museum in Zalipie – Tuesday to Sunday it is open from 10am – 4pm. and closed on Mondays.
• Domu Malarek (Commune Cultural Centre) – Monday – Friday 8am – 4pm. During the summer months of May – September (Monday – Friday, 8am – 6pm, Saturday & Sunday 11am – 6pm.

Best Free Things to do when Visiting Zalipie, Poland’s Painted Village

• Walk to Drive the Route of the Polands’s Painted Village – Outside St. Joseph’s church and at other locations in Zalipie you will find a notice board which highlights some of the most amazing painted houses of Zalipie. The walk or drive is approximately 5 kilometres long, so depending on your stamina and the strength of the sun you might wish to walk, drive or cycle the route.
• St. Joseph’s Church, Zalipie – the beautiful church in Zalipie is full of the charm, charm reflected in the rest of the village. Folk art painted walls, liturgical vestments embroidered with the local folk art motifs and beautiful stained glass.
• Domu Malarek (Commune Cultural Centre) – In the centre of the dreamy village of Zalipie is what we might call the community centre. We actually drove past it thinking it was a school, then realised our error. Here you will find a beautiful garden, sun dial, painted bee hives the most ornate and quainted thatched painted house. Inside you will see exhibitions, you might meet painters at work and learn how they create these had drawn works of art.
• Attend a Church Service at St. Joseph’s – if visiting the village on a Sunday or staying for longer in the area, why not attend a service at St. Joseph’s church and get to know the locals who help make this Poland’s most beautiful village

5 Amazing things about the tiny museum in Zalipie

1. Guided Tours are included in price – we have no idea what it costs to enter the museum. A few euro’s or złoty I would expect. However on the day we arrive we are told it is free! You are given a ticket with a tour time . You are free to wander the garden and take photos of the exteriors of the buildings. Our guide spoke Polish and English (she said a little but she was great) so we all enjoyed learning a little bit more about the houses and the ladies who created these beautiful buildings inside and out.
2. Buildings brimming with beauty inside and out – painted ceilings, stoves, ranges, enamel buckets, wood work, beds, dressers, bedding, dog kennel, wells. No matter where you look in these ornate rooms you will find individual style and beauty. Each of the three buildings is unique, decorated by three different ladies (some of there photos hang on the walls).
3. The Painted buildings – one of the painted buildings of the museum is original to the plot of land. Two of the other houses moved there, we would say brick by brick, or wood by wood might be more appropriate. The tiny houses are similar to what we know in Scotland’s as Black Houses. A room for living, a room for storage and a room for guests. (In Scotland it was a room for living and a room for the animals and again no chimney.
4. Thatched Cottage – my favourite cottage is the newly arrived and rethatched cottage. This was the cottage most reminiscent of a Scottish Black house, complete with a plastic cow in the byre part of the building. This cottage had lovely little blue painted seats to enjoy the hot Autumn sunshine as the bees still buzzed around.
5. Learn to paint the Zalipie way – the tiny ticket office of the museum also has a room where visitors can paint Zalipie style folk art onto pottery items and other crafts, if you are lucky enough to arrive at the right time or your tour operator can arrange this.

Zalipie Poland’s Painted Village

Over all I loved the village of Zalipie. Visiting Poland’s Painted Village of Zalipie was one of the best things we did!

Now it is time for you to visit Zalipie and perhaps the Wieliczka Salt Mine.