At Podbiel, traditional buildings in the courtyards typical of central Orava have been preserved in almost their original condition. This was declared a Reserve of Folk Architecture. You can spend a long time simply admiring the harmony achieved between practicality and aesthetic design. The majority of the buildings are not permanently inhabited but some of them serve recreational purposes.

Podbiel is located in the ethnographically typical region of Orava. It is one of the least disturbed localities in Orava where the traditional buildings in the courtyards typical of central Orava have been preserved in almost their original condition.

The basic distinctive feature of the Orava villages is the way in which houses were built and the position of the dominant walls. Two significantly different types of villages were created as a result of the historical peculiarities of the settlement and the economic character of the estates: the older type based on the herdsman law in the 16th century and the later one - being mountain settlements - created by colonization in the 17th and at the beginning of the 18th century.
In the older type, based on the herdsman law, the villages are spread along rivers and streams with a street or row type of settlement.

Podbiel is a representative of this type; it is a village with a double row of streets and a central triangular-shaped area around the church. The basis for the farm settlements is a communal courtyard built at almost regular intervals. The courtyards face onto the roads. The longitudinal axis of a house crosses the axis of the road at a right angle. In front, there are two or three houses built one behind another followed by farm buildings (shippens, sties, coops, toolsheds and woodstores). On to the long line of these buildings is built a barn at a right angle, thus forming the shape of a letter “L” and enclosing the farmyard.
The folk architecture at Podbiel was substantially affected by the development of a working class in the Orava villages. As early as the second half of the 19th century, a dense complex of workers´ houses existed at Podbiel. These houses did not serve any manufacturing function. At Podbiel and several other towns, the rear chambers used to be inhabited and additional rooms built on to form a long line behind the house, simultaneously extending the courtyard. Sometimes, two to four flats were built onto the line of a house.
A typical complex of flats built in rows called Bobrova raľa was preserved at Podbiel which originally consisted of 56 flats (units) built in 32 rows. There were 18 houses with two flats, 2 houses with three flats and 1 house with 4 flat units in this complex.
Source: www. podbiel.sk