The composer Szymanowski visited Zakopane in his childhood. The Villa Atma became his permanent residence when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and left his position of Director at the Warsaw Conservatory in 1930. He described the villa in a letter to his mother as "a small, humble mountaineer's cottage". Amongst the fellow artists who visited Szymanowski in Villa Atma were Artur Rubinstein, Serge Lifar and Emil Młynarski.
