Page 450 [450]
OCR
NATIONAL SYLISTIC ASPIRATIONS to Baroque, local peculiarities were intended to be demonstrated.* The mansion-style appearing after 1900, the manor houses of the nobility with columned porches, drew inspiration from dworek architecture.* The so-called Zakopane style excels as an example of Polish national style. In the peasant houses of the Tatra Mountains the “ancient Slavic spirit conserving its pagan character” unspoilt by the impact of western civilization was discovered at the beginning of the 19'* century. Stanislav Witkiewicz, the painter and critic, first visited Zakopane in 1886 and settled in the mountain village in 1890. Witkiewicz presumed that the sheds of the Gérale (the highlanders) who dealt with herding sheep on the territory stretching from the foot of the Tatra Mountains, the so-called Podhale area, preserved the ancient Polish architectural designs of the Piast era.° The Zakopane style made an attempt to establish a national style finding its roots in Podhale architecture, design and ornamentation, nourished by “the original Polish soul”. The initiative of Witkiewicz’s found more and more followers.’ Soon the remote tiny village became a place for the majority of Polish intellectuals where they had annual gatherings for three months.* Zakopane not only turned into a favourite resort, but the spiritual centre of the national romantic movement, which, beyond spreading Zakopane style, found its programme in the realisation of Polish political independence. * The Polish shade was first discovered in the Gothic architecture of Krakow in the 14" century. The local peculiarity of the Vistula was available through the red brick facade and the application of ceramics. Almost at the same time the interest in the local version of the Renaissance appeared, represented by the Sigmund-style with its characteristic high ledges and yards with arcades. The Polish Neo-Baroque found its basis in the sacral architecture of the countryside. Wojciech Balus: A zakopanei stílus és a lengyel nemzeti stílusról folytatott viták az építészetben és iparművészetben, in Katalin Keserü — Péter Haba (eds.): A modernizmus kezdetei Közép-Európa építészetében. Lengyel, cseh, szlovák és magyar építészeti írások a 19—20. század fordulóján, Budapest, Ernst Múzeum, 2005, 26. 5 It became the model for national architecture in the Kingdom of Poland, but edifices designed with a veranda at the entrance and a skylight located in the middle of the facade, adorned with a triangular frontispiece and a high roof also appeared in Galicia in about 1908. 6 Akos Moravänszky: Epiteszet az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchiában, Budapest, Corvina, 1988, 153. ” At the same time of their first visit, the Dembowski couple saved the old furniture and pots from decay in their collection of Gural artefacts forming the basis of an Ethnographical Museum. The work by Wladyslaw Matlakowski titled The Podhale Folk Art was published in 1892 introducing the orientation and openings of the Gural dwelling places in relation to the geographical and climatic conditions, as well as discussing the décor of the buildings related to their mode of construction and the nature of wood. Katalin Keserü: A századforduló, Budapest, Kijärat Kiadö, 2007, 193. 8 Wladislaw Ekielski: Zakopane (részletek), in Katalin Keserü — Péter Haba (eds.): A modernizmus kezdetei Közép-Európa építészetében. Lengyel, cseh, szlovák és magyar építészeti írások a 19-20. század fordulóján, Budapest, Ernst Múzeum, 2005, 36—37. * 449 +
