Karol Szymanowski Museum in Villa Atma

The Karol Szymanowski Museum presents memorabilia of the composer, his decorations, manuscripts, music works, and personal items. Interiors have been recreated on the basis of photographs, to preserve the atmosphere of the interwar period. The institution is a branch of the National Museum in Krakow.

Karol Szymanowski had been living in the Villa Atma between 1930 and 1935. Then he went to the sanatorium to Switzerland and didn't return to Zakopane. The efforts to organize the museum were made by his niece, Krystyna Dąbrowska. It was only in 1975 when as a result of the public fund-raising organized by Jerzy Waldorff, buying Atma building and adapting it for exhibition purposes was possible.

Villa Atma is a wooden, two-storey house in the Zakopane style. After Szymanowski's moving out, it was intended for flats. For this reason, original interiors have not been preserved. The appearance of Szymanowski's cabinet has been recreated according to the photographs. Other rooms have the appearance corresponding to the requirements of the period but are not identical as the original. The interiors show keepsakes of the composer. In 2007, on the occasion of the Year of Szymanowski, two portraits of composer by Witkacy have returned to Villa Atma.