The PTTK House of Tourists, designed by Tadeusz Brzoza and Zbigniew Kupiec (in the years 1953-1958) and opened in 1958, is one of the most important places on the map of modernity in Zakopane. Maintained in the New Zakopane style, it has a tetrahedral shape with a courtyard inside.
After the end of the war, the assumptions developed at the end of the 1930s, namely the combination of functional forms with regionalism, were continued. The new style was born, which was characterised by the integration of wood and stone (walls clad in cut stone and wooden-shingled roofs), and the building boasted the largest shingle roof in Europe, with an area of 6000 m². The whole building was also very "artistic".
We are not only talking about the original shape, combining regionalism with functionalism, the interiors designed by the Brzozowski, Górski and Fajkosz family, but also about the stories written inside the walls. It is here that exhibitions of the Pegaz gallery and confrontations of the Zaskroniec cabaret were organised. In the mountain bookshop, conversations over coffee between famous alpinists and Himalayan mountaineers took place. The dancing parties were attended by all the artistic elite of Zakopane in a space filled with never-falling vapours of cigarette smoke. Discussions on art and more. Meetings, lectures, slide shows. Talks until the morning. The building housed not only a good canteen feeding the guests, but also the café of the International Press and Book Club (MPiK). It was these clubs that, during the transformation, were transformed into the Empik bookshop chain known today throughout Poland.
In 2014, in the place of the iconic Dom Turysty (Tourist House), for years associated with culture, art and passion for the mountains, a hotel different from all was built, called by its guests "a hotel with soul". Its architecture and design harmoniously combine the colourful history of the building and the regional style with the love of modern design, comfort and elegance. With its colourful history and iconic location, the hotel creates its own story every day.