Feel the Flower Power of Zalipie

We will set off from Krakow to get to a small village of Zalipie. Experience starts with learning about the traditions of Zalipie at the “Painter’s House”, where we will take part in the colorful workshops "Tradition and Modernity". As part of the workshop, we will learn how to paint decorative motifs according to the principles of folk aesthetics, maintaining the traditional colors of brown, black and white. We will make a brush from a birch stick, horsehair, and a cow's tail. Finally, we will see the technical possibilities of hand-made painting tools, comparing them with the possibilities of modern brushes and paints, painting a clay bell, wooden spoon, or spatula. After the workshops, we will go to the local church, the interior of which is decorated, like everything in the village, with colorful flowers. Then, we will visit one of the farms where the inhabitants will tell us about the local tradition. Finally, we will have a vegetarian lunch prepared by local house wives.

It all started as usual: the local women had a difficult task to keep the cottages with sooty walls clean, and in the rooms where livestock was kept next to people. At first, the young girls, looking at each other, on the whitewashed walls of a stove, with a brush made of millet or rye, made so-called "Floats", that is, irregular spots. Quite quickly for poor Galician areas, as already in the first decade of the 20th century, Zalipian girls began to use not only floats but also boldly composed patterns, dominated by flowers and swirls, and creativity depended on individual abilities. Today in Zalipie, everything is covered in colourful flowers, and the inhabitants compete in embellishing their huts with beautiful colourful flowers.