Zalipie: Poland’s Intense Floral Village
About 100 years ago the residents of Zalipie, a small town in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship decided to start painting their village, and paint it they did. Zalipie is fairly secluded and lies in the south east of Poland, so I suppose they had little else to do. Some might say the designs and colour choice are chincey and more than a little bit twee, but not me. Nope. It beats the crap out of boring old grey and brown doesn’t it?
No one’s too sure why the practice of floral decoration began, some say it was to cover up soot spots from the smoky stoves but the real reason is lost to the mists of mother time. It’s still mostly the women of Zalipie who do the painting, but I guess a glance at the subject matter might have told you that; there’s not a Darth Vader or gunshot wound in site so the men obviously aren’t involved.
Zalipie holds an annual competition around the time of the feast of Corpus Christi, and that keeps the practice alive. Not a patch of architecture seems to miss the painter’s eager eye. The flowers cover everything.
Like I said, it’s just nice to see something a bit different isn’t it? Good on you Zalipie:
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