The villa was built in 1890 by Bronisław Chwistek, who was a popular doctor. His wife, Emilia Majewski, was a pianist and painter, a student of Jan Matejko and Karol Mikulski. Their son, Leon Chwistek – painter, critic and art theorist; mathematician and philosopher; member of the avant-garde group Formists; creator of aesthetic theories of “multiplicity of realities” and Zonism.

Dr. Chwistek opened one of the first hydrotherapy facilities in Zakopane here, called “Hygea”. After his death, the name of the villa and guesthouse was changed to “Gerlach”, and from 1936, a hotel operated in it under the name “Kasprowy Wierch”. In the following years, its purpose was changed many times. In the 1990s, a hotel started operating in it again. The villa is built in the Swiss style. Such an example from Krupówki Street was the “Marya” villa, now known as Poraj, built in the years 1890-1891 and the Hydrotherapy Centre of Dr. Chwistek “Hygea”, today known as the “Resort Kasprowy Wierch”. Their construction began in the early period of the Zakopane style. "The change in the Zakopane construction took place after Stanisław Witkiewicz arrived to the Tatra Mountains. From the first years of his stay in Zakopane, he called for the use of motifs taken from the local peasant tradition in the buildings under construction. Initially, his exhortations were reflected in an eclectic way, namely, elements of Podhale decoration and ornamentation were used, adapting them to the forms of “the Swiss style”.