Next to the “Czerwony Dwór” villa on Kasprusie Street, you can sit on a bench and listen to works by the great composer Karol Szymanowski.

He was born on October 3, 1882, in Tymoszówka (now in Ukraine) and died on March 29, 1937, in Lausanne, France. He was buried in Kraków at Skałka, in the Crypt of the Distinguished.

Szymanowski was one of the greatest Polish composers. His works include the opera King Roger, Kurpie Songs, and Veni Creator, written to words by Stanisław Wyspiański. He was also a pianist, an honorary doctor of the Jagiellonian University, director of the Warsaw Conservatory, and rector of the Warsaw Higher School of Music. It is believed that under his influence, a folkloristic trend in Polish music developed in the 1930s.

Karol Szymanowski visited Zakopane before World War I, but settled there only in 1930, shortly after being diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis. His home became the villa “Atma,” which still exists today. It was in Zakopane that he became more closely acquainted with the music of the Podhale region, listening to highlander melodies played for him by, among others, the famous Bartuś Obrochta.

Due to his deteriorating health, Szymanowski left Zakopane in the autumn of 1935. He traveled to France for climatic treatment; it was to be his final journey. He died in Lausanne in March 1937. After his death, his body was embalmed, a death mask was made, and casts of his hands were taken. His heart was intended to be placed next to Chopin’s heart in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw, but the urn containing it burned along with the chapel of the Sisters of the Sacré Coeur during the Warsaw Uprising.

In 1976, a Karol Szymanowski Museum was established in the “Atma” villa in Zakopane, which also serves as the seat of the Karol Szymanowski Music Society. The Kraków Philharmonic and the Academy of Music in Katowice are named after him. To commemorate the 80th anniversary of his death and the 135th anniversary of his birth, the Zakopane City Council declared 2017 the Year of Karol Szymanowski in Zakopane.

Pieces whose fragments can be heard on the bench: