The Kawulok Cottage
43 – 470 Istebna Wojtosze 824, e-mail: janko553@interia.pl, Phone: (+48) 33-855-62-31, (+48) 790-262-829. Opened daily, after a telephone arrangement.
Being the best-preserved example of a historic, highlanders’ house in the Istebna region, it is at the same time the most valued object of this sort in Beskid Śląski. The cottage is an original wooden structure, with a shingle-covered roof, built in 1863. Until today, it has preserved the historic arrangement of rooms that is two chambers with a hall in between. In one of the chambers, there is a piec kurlawy, i.e. a special type of hearth without a chimney (all smoke stayed in the chamber). Back then, ovens of this type were commonly used to avoid the chimney (hearth) tax.
The Kawulok Cottage contains traditional furnishing: benches, stools, a wooden table with a stone top, beds, shelves, chests, a cupboard, spoons, home dishes, shepherd’s equipment, small tools and other household appliances. One of the most interesting exhibits is a historic quern-stone for producing flour.
A former cottage owner, Jan Kawulok (1899 – 1976) was a fervent enthusiast of the regional culture. After his death, the cottage has been looked after by his daughter, Zuzanna Kawulok - a local storyteller, with the help of a young highlander, Janusz Macoszek. Macoszek is also a folk culture enthusiast; he tells stories from shepherding life and presents historic folk instruments: gaidas (type of a bagpipe), shepherds’ blowing horns, trembitas and varied size willow flutes, ocarinas, and other flute-like instruments called sowy.
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