Villa Atma

Atma is a Zakopane-style wooden villa where Karol Szymanowski, the leading Polish composer of the generation after Chopin's centenary, lived from 1930 to 1935. The years there produced Harnasie, the ballet built on Podhale highlander music and dance, along with the Stabat Mater and other late works, and the house is the reason those pieces sound the way they do - Szymanowski had been collecting and listening to highland music and found in it what Bartok found in Hungarian village song. The building is now a branch of the Krakow national music museum, showing his rooms, the piano, manuscripts, photographs and personal things, and it runs chamber recitals in the main room, which seats a small audience and has good acoustics for that scale. The name Atma is Sanskrit for soul or self, given by an earlier owner interested in theosophy, and Szymanowski kept it.

What you actually see

• Szymanowski's rooms - as he used them from 1930 to 1935.
• His piano and manuscripts - along with photographs and personal effects.
• The Harnasie years - where the highlander ballet and late works were written.
• Chamber recitals - held in the main room for small audiences.

When to go

All year. Two hours.

Honest expectations

The house is small - an hour or so unless there is a concert. Closed Mondays and for periods of maintenance. Recital seats are few and go quickly. Labelling is partly Polish only.

Nearby

Krupowki and the Zakopane style villas are a short walk away.