Zakopane is an Alpine mountain resort located at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. At 3,200 feet above sea level, Zakopane is the highest city in Poland. Due to this elevation, it has a cool, mountain climate. Zakopane is known for the best skiing and hiking in Poland and also enjoys a rich cultural life and authentic folklore. The earliest written records about Zakopane come from the 17th century; the Zakopiska Glade is mentioned in the earliest town documents. The development and history of the city are linked with primitive mining and metallurgy. Later, the town became associated with therapeutics and tourism. From the small village to its current status as a popular tourist destination, the city has been earning its nickname as the winter capital of Poland.

Zakopane has been an established attraction since the 1870s, when the purity of the mountain air began to attract the attention of Krakow doctors and their city patients. Within a few years, this inaccessible mountain village of sheep farmers was transformed, as those visitors were followed by Krakow artists and intellectuals, who in the final decades of the Austro-Hungarian rule established a fashionable Bohemian colony here. In the postwar era the town grew to become one of Poland's prime travel destinations because of its superb mountain setting with access to the peaks, as well as the distinctive traditional Highlander architecture throughout the town.