Back in the early 1940’s the residents of Zalipie, Poland, discovered a problem. When they had a fire going inside of their houses the smoke wasn’t leaving the house as they expected. That led to a lot of soot being left on the inside walls. Someone eventually designed the chimney and the smoke started leaving properly but it left behind another problem for them. When there was no more smoke inside the house the resident’s noticed that once they cleaned their walls really good, they were left as plain white. This was boring to them so they started painting them. Flowers were the big choice back then and then things got out of control. Someone liked it so much they painted flowers on the outside of their house. It caught on and suddenly everyone in town was doing it. Then someone took it even further and started painting them everywhere. Now the entire town has flowers painted everywhere you look. It gives the small town kind of a fairy tale look and the paintings blend in very well with the natural beauty of the region. Since 1948, Zalipie has hosted an annual Painted Cottage Competition and as you will see from the photos, there is no better place in the world to hold such and event.
