Contact:
ul. Chałubińskiego 7
tel. +48 18 201 72 49
Opening hours
Tuesday, Thursday, 4.00 p.m. - 5.00 p.m.
Tickets:
Free admittance (voluntary donations)
“Palace" Hotel, currently housing the “Palace" Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom – Podhale Torture House, was built in 1930. It was a modern building at that time with modernist architecture. During World War II, the building was the headquarters of the Gestapo (Geheime Staats-Polizei – Secret State Police) in Zakopane. In the basement, there was a prison, and on the ground floor – an interrogation room. Because of the tortures used during interrogations, the “Palace" was called the “Podhale Torture House". There were six prison cells and a dungeon. Prisoners’ arms and legs were cuffed with steel cuffs attached to the walls. It is impossible to say how many prisoners were kept there and how many of them were murdered. The prisoners were killed in the whole building and also in the nearby area. Writings scratched on the walls prove that also many foreigners were imprisoned in the torture house. The “Palace" Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom was established on the initiative of Dr. Wincenty Galica, who was the museum’s custodian for many years and struggled to save the memorials during the Nazi occupation.
