Henryk “Baltazar” Zachwieja

Inside the chapel, you can find several works by Henryk Zachwieja. The artist was born in 1952 into a traditional, góralski family of Zachwiejas. Although his father, the famous Szczawnica barber Tadeusz Zachwieja, encouraged him to follow in his footsteps, Henryk decided to enroll in the music school in Nowy Sącz. He did not complete his education there; a year before his final exams, he decided to transfer to the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. During the entrance exam, when he was asked to paint a picture, the committee determined that it was the work of someone in their third year of studies, not their first, and he was not allowed to continue to the next exams, as they thought he was cheating. Zachwieja did not complete his artistic education; he is largely self-taught. His works can be found in many places in Szczawnica. In the chapel on Sewerynówka, you can find his: altar, tabernacle, the górals guarding it, the altar table, and wooden stained-glass windows.

The Burned Sanatorium

On the way to the chapel, you can see the overgrown foundations of a sanatorium. During World War II, the facility served as an overnight shelter for partisans, and in 1944, it was partially burned down. The building was renovated in the 1960s, but it was again destroyed by fire before it could be reopened in 1962.