When you travel to the village of Zalipe, Poland, you will notice a unique loveliness: everything is covered in hand-painted floral designs—barns, homes, bridges, wells, even chicken coops!
These chickens are living in hand-painted style!
This sweet tradition started about 100 years ago when people were just trying to cover up soot stains caused by wood-burning stoves. They attempted to paint over the stains, but it just wasn’t enough. So, they started drawing flowers over them, because why not try and make it look nice? Soon, it became a tradition.
Then, in 1965, they turned the painting tradition into an actual contest called the Malowana Chata, which literally just translates to “Painted Cottage.” Everybody competes to see who can turn their house into the most impressive piece of art.
Do you see this house? This is a real house. This is not a dollhouse. This is not a house inside of an enchanted forest from a live action fairytale movie. It’s just a regular sized, real house. This house is cute.
This nice looking building looks like it fell right out of a storybook. And here is the world’s cutest well.
At this rate, the lovely town of Zalipie is destined to one day be entirely covered in hand-drawn flowers—and that’s perfectly fine.
Recommended Fodor’s Video
PLAN YOUR VISIT to Zalipie (which is only an hour and a half drive from Krakow) with the Fodor’s Poland Travel Guide.