The Most Beautiful Painted Village

When we talk about art, often we think about singers or actors. Although I’m not about it exactly as a part of the today’s society. Everything is art to me, because we can use mind all the time to changing stuffs. Making new stuffs can be hard but really is worth of every effort.

And this is the reason why I showing you different artists. I don’t like boring things and I’m sure that the new faces modify your point of view. One of my firsts blogs concerned the laces from Poland. I remember that you liked it, so let me show you the next miracle from my country.

In South-Eastern Poland we have a little village, called Zalipie. This place is famous for painting houses, wayside shrines, house furniture and other forms of decoration as ceramic painting, painting on various fabric, embroidery, paper cut-outs and blotting-paper decorations. This incredible tradition was commenced in the 1930s.

Story of this tradition is really curios:

“This lovely tradition started with more than a century ago, when every single female resident in Zalipie begun to paint her home with floral motives, as she wanted to cover up some particular faults. And since the women didn’t have professionally made equipment, they manufactured the brushes themselves, using hair from the tails of their cows. As or the paint itself, women used fat from the dumplings they made. Very important is that each year, all the women had to repaint their charming drawings. And they did so, after the Feast of Corpus Christi, when they weren’t so busy with their farm work.

In time, this joyfully and unique habit was passed on from one generation to another. Moreover, women found inspiration in nature and local folklore, so their paintings became both larger and more colorful.

One woman in particular became really obsessed with this tradition. Her name was Felicja Curylowa (1904 – 1974) and she decorated every surface of her three-bedroomed cottage, no matter how small or large. After her death, the beautiful house was turned into a museum. And it is quite a source of attraction among tourists!

In other words, Zalipie can be seen as a massive painting, full of color, life and history. The whole village is painted. Even the dog’s cages or old fountains, not to mention fences, windows and interior walls. It’s a real delight!

And the perfect time to visit Zalipie is spring, as during this season, since 1948, the village hosts an important contest: the Painted Cottage competition or “Malowana Chata”. It started after the World War II ended, in the local authorities attempt to cover up the damage done the war. Official data shows that more than 17% of Poland’s population died in the war.” – by Unusual Places

Do you have your favorite photo from Zalipie? Do you know similar places to Zalipie? Let me know, I’m so interested ethnography from your country.

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