Zakopane

a city in Poland, in Kraków Wojewoództwo. Population, 27,000 (1970). The city has a railroad station. Zakopane lies in the foothills of the Tatra Mountains, in the intermontane Podhale Basin and partly in the valley of the Zakopianka River, a tributary of the Biały Dunajec. It is situated among pine forests at an elevation of about 850 m.

Zakopane is a health resort, with moderately warm summers (average July temperature, 15°C) and mild winters (average January temperature, −5°C); annual precipitation is about 1,000 mm. Winters are marked by many sunny windless days and a stable snow cover. Zakopane provides treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis, nontubercular illnesses of the respiratory organs, anemia, and fatigue. It has sanatoriums for both adults and children, houses of rest, hotels, and boarding houses. Zakopane is a popular recreation resort and the national center for mountain climbing, tourism, and winter sports. Its facilities include tourist centers, a ski jump, an overhead cableway, a funicular, well-equipped mountain ski runs, and a swimming pool; it has a year-round season. Zakopane is famous for its artistic wood-working, especially woodcutting, and for the production of skis.

The buildings of the city are of wood, in folk style as well as in the distinctive Zakopane style, exemplified by the House Under the Firs (1896–97) and the Tatra Museum (1913), both designed by the architect S. Witkiewicz. Th’e city has two arts and crafts schools. Near Zakopane are the V. I. Lenin Museum (in Poronino) and the V. I. Lenin House Museum (in Bialy Dunajec); Lenin lived there in the summers of 1913 and 1914. There is also a monument, created by the sculptor W. Hasior, to the Polish partisans shot by the fascist German occupation forces in 1944.