A bit of history...
Oksza was Stanisław Witkiewicz's third project in the Zakopane style. The design was drawn between 1894 and 1895. Ordered by Bronisława and Wincenty Kossakowski, it was executed in the years 1895-1896 by a team of Highlander carpenters led by Wojciech Roj and Jan Obrochta. The villa was then named Korwinówka (a title that derives the Kossakowski family coat of arms, Korwin).
There are no records of the transaction, but the villa was presumably sold in 1899 to Count Marcin Kęszycki and renamed Oksza, after his family coat of arms. In the 1920s, local social activist Klara Jelska bought Oksza for the Odrodzenie Association, which rebuilt it and, changing its original design, set up a sanatorium there. Next, the villa became a boarding house of a Zakopane school. After the Second World War, the authorities used it as a house for children recovering from various ailments, and in 1965 it was turned into a state-owned guest house. In 2006, the building was listed on the Małopolska Region Monument Register.
Today's situation...
Oksza is currently being restored. It is the second oldest existing building (after Koliba) in the Zakopane Style. Despite its dilapidated state it has retained its original form and some of its internal and external decorative elements remain. The lost elements are being reconstructed thanks to 19th century photographs from the archives of the Tatra Museum.
Zbigniew Moździerz
