Zakopane News
The word Zakopane means buried and it can be quite literally buried in snow in winter. Zakopane itself is situated at the foot of the Tatra mountain range in southern Poland. The architecture is of mainly wooden, alpine style houses although there is some evidence of the rectangular apartment block style of the communist era. The town and region has managed to maintain its own unique identity through the preservation of the traditional highland culture.
The Gorale or Highlanders are the descendents of the traditional mountain farmers and shepherds and are in evidence wherever you go. They will be everwhere you go in the area, playing and singing in capella bands, driving the tourists about in their horses and carts (in the winter-sleighs) and selling their traditional woodcraft souvenirs from the many stalls set up in the markets. The local traditional dress is thick, embroidered white woollen trousers, loose white shirt and embroidered waistcoat worn by the men and a local version of the colourful Polish national dress worn by the women.
The town has about 30,000 inhabitants but this increases by 2 million each year by visitors coming mainly to ski or snow board. But even if you are not into winter sports Zakopane is a wonderful place to visit in the summer. The forests and lakes of the Polish Tatras are preserved as a National Park. It is a truly wonderful area to visit. There are still brown bear, linx and wild boar to be found roaming the forest.
You will find a warm welcome from the locals as many speak English. Most of the restaurants provide menus in Polish, English and German although in some you may have to ask for the English menu.
