The settlement

We have always been drawn to the mountains. To open space, silence, the scent of spruce and air that feels different from the city. For more than ten years we ran our own properties elsewhere in Poland, and we learned that guests do not remember the square metres; they remember how they felt. During the pandemic we asked ourselves a simple question: where would we want to keep coming back to? The answer came with the view from a meadow in Gliczarów Górny. We sold some of our properties and started building here. We made Matygowa Osada the way we would make it for ourselves, our family and our friends. We know every house down to its foundations and every peak outside the window by name. We are glad to share it with you.

Your hosts at Matygowa Osada

We built the settlement with its surroundings in mind. Solar collectors and heat pumps provide about 90% of the energy we need, and our own ecological treatment plant cleans the wastewater. We believe true luxury is comfort in harmony with nature.

Podhale is not an open-air museum. It is people who still build in wood, play the fiddle and make cheese the way their grandparents did, and do it today, every day.

Timber and shingle

wierch: peak, summit

In Podhale carpentry is still a trade, not a hobby. Shingles, hand-split wooden roof tiles, still go onto houses and chapels here, and walls are still raised from logs locked together at the corners.

Oscypek

baca: head shepherd

Real oscypek is made by the head shepherd in his hut from May to September, from sheep's milk, and then smoked. Since 2008 its name has been protected across the European Union. Sheep sometimes graze right beyond the settlement's fence. Ask us where to buy oscypek straight from the shepherd.

Where the highlanders came from

Wołosi: wandering Carpathian shepherds

Shepherding culture arrived with the Vlachs, who from the 14th century moved with their flocks along the Carpathian arc. They left their mark on place names, such as the Wołoszyn ridge, which gave one of our houses its name.

Music

nuta: a highland tune

Highland music means fiddles and a bass, and tunes passed down from father to son. It is still played at weddings and in inns, not for tourists, but for the people themselves.

Our neighbours

gazda: the master of the house

We only recommend people we know: local craftspeople, mountain guides, musicians and farmers. You will find the list in our guest guide.