Szaflary

Poland, Poland

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Szaflary is a village in southern Poland's Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in Nowy Targ County, situated along the Dunajec River at the border of the Podhale region and Pieniny Mountains, serving as the seat of Gmina Szaflary with about 2,200 residents.

One of the oldest settlements in Podhale, first mentioned in 1328 and founded under German law before 1338 near an 11th-century defensive stronghold and 13th-century royal watchtower (zameczek) on Szaflarska Skałka guarding trade routes, it became a royal leasehold rented to nobles like the Gryfit, Ratuld, and Komorowski families, hosting a parish church to St. Andrew the Apostle by 1350.

Marked by peasant uprisings against oppressive starosts in 1630 and 1651—during which locals fought Swedes in the Deluge and supported Polish kings—it passed to Austrian control in 1772, saw 1846 insurgent activity, and developed with a 1899 railway, evolving into a tourist spot with dense historic wooden buildings along the old Nowy Targ-Zakopane road amid forested hills.