Wednesday 22 June We had a big day planned; a four and a half hour walking tour of Nowa Huta, a new planned city on the outskirts of Krakow.
However things don't always go to plan when you're travelling. We allowed time to walk from our accomodation to the town square to meet the guide at 10:30. As we were about to leave, we realised that someone had deadlocked the front to the building and we couldn’t get out. After the initial mild panic we started knocking on all the other doors, to no avail. Eventually one resident appeared and we did a sign language explanation about the problem with the door. He unlocked it for us, and instead of a leisurely 20 minute walk, we had a 6 minute run. We made it, hot, bothered and just a little cranky.
Nowa Huta was designed by the Soviets to be a new type of socialist society. It was to provide housing for 100,000 people to service the new steelworks built adjacent to it. It was started in 1949 and operational by 1960. It was also designed to be a city able to withstand the ravages of the proposed Third World War planned by Stalin.
All public buildings had bomb-proof bunkers and water supply. The buildings were arranged so that they could be defended against tanks in the case of an attack. The walls were unnecessarily thick for residential buildings and entry to apartment complexes we through a narrow passageway that could be collapsed onto tanks, blocking them from attack. There were also positions for snipers on the rooftops.
Damien, our guide was pretty anti-communist, and tended to focus on the negative aspects. I think part of the dislike of communism here is entwined with Soviet oppression.
The Russians are essentially seen as the last in a long line of invaders that dominated the Polish people. Every physical reminder (statues, street names, etc) of Stalin et al. has been removed and/or destroyed. The city was looked nowhere as bad as could be expected, lots of trees, gardens and parkland. On closer inspection though, there was shabbiness to it all.
Only a few places had any kind of maintenance and many areas were overgrown by weeds. The steel mill now only employs a fraction of the original workforce and unemployment is high. There is almost nothing for young people to do – they all go to Krakow, 20 minutes away by tram. When the steel mill was operational, both Nowa Huta and Krakow were heavily affected by smoke and acid rain. The aerial photos show the relative sizes of Krakow, Nowa Huta and the steelworks.
Because the communists were against religion and religious icons, other imagery replaced them.
For example ceramic plates were attached to ceilings and decorative ceramic chandeliers were made for the city.
We were treated to a communist propaganda movie promoting the Utopian vision. However, the venue itself was more interesting, decorated with a collection of communist era manufactured goods.
There was strong pressure to have a church built which caused a great deal of friction between the population and government, causing many arrests and some deaths.
Eventually a church was built which took ten years to complete and is full of symbolism a result of pressure on both sides. For example the cross on top is not visible from below, and is orientated so that from the city it looks just like a spire.
In effect overall, Nowa Huta is not unlike new townships built on the outskirts of Sydney, lacking in infrastructure, employment and social cohesion. Over 65 years years later though, a community built essentially from farmers and unskilled workers has developed a strong sense of identity and identify more strongly with Nowa Huta than Krakow.
We didn’t get back from the tour until around 4pm – five and a half hours after we started! We were tired and starving. After a quick snack we both flaked out and had a sleep. Communism is taking its toll on us as well.
We only had a short time then to prepare for an 8pm concert by the Royal Chamber Orchestra. They are a small four-string orchestra whose music is “the perfect combination of excellent taste, unlimited imagination and the perfect technique. They performed a selection of old and modern classics, including works such as Piazzola’s Libertango.
The performance takes place on an upper floor of a 15the century building and we were greeted with a small glass of sparkling wine on arrival. Fortunately the music was better than the wine.
The leader, Kamil Skicki, is a bit of a character and wove some virtuoso and humourous elements into a personalised interpretation of some pieces. From what I could tell, their playing was superb.
We were seated only a couple of metres away from the quartet, and the acoustics in the room were excellent, which made the music quite enveloping. Absolutely worthwhile.
After the Royal Chamber Orchestra performance, we stopped at a small local restaurant for a late evening snack. Frances just had a simple Borscht, and I finally got Stuffed Cabbage. The Borscht was a bit thin, but the flavour was good. The Stuffed Cabbage came with a creamy tomato sauce which was unusually tasty. It had a slight hint of curry (we’ve noticed this a bit in Poland) but a little too salty. It went very well with a wheat beer though.
Some final photos from Krakow: Typical regional ceramics, a cartoon shop and a the obligatory manhole cover.
However things don't always go to plan when you're travelling. We allowed time to walk from our accomodation to the town square to meet the guide at 10:30. As we were about to leave, we realised that someone had deadlocked the front to the building and we couldn’t get out. After the initial mild panic we started knocking on all the other doors, to no avail. Eventually one resident appeared and we did a sign language explanation about the problem with the door. He unlocked it for us, and instead of a leisurely 20 minute walk, we had a 6 minute run. We made it, hot, bothered and just a little cranky.
Nowa Huta was designed by the Soviets to be a new type of socialist society. It was to provide housing for 100,000 people to service the new steelworks built adjacent to it. It was started in 1949 and operational by 1960. It was also designed to be a city able to withstand the ravages of the proposed Third World War planned by Stalin.
All public buildings had bomb-proof bunkers and water supply. The buildings were arranged so that they could be defended against tanks in the case of an attack. The walls were unnecessarily thick for residential buildings and entry to apartment complexes we through a narrow passageway that could be collapsed onto tanks, blocking them from attack. There were also positions for snipers on the rooftops.
Damien, our guide was pretty anti-communist, and tended to focus on the negative aspects. I think part of the dislike of communism here is entwined with Soviet oppression.
The Russians are essentially seen as the last in a long line of invaders that dominated the Polish people. Every physical reminder (statues, street names, etc) of Stalin et al. has been removed and/or destroyed. The city was looked nowhere as bad as could be expected, lots of trees, gardens and parkland. On closer inspection though, there was shabbiness to it all.
Only a few places had any kind of maintenance and many areas were overgrown by weeds. The steel mill now only employs a fraction of the original workforce and unemployment is high. There is almost nothing for young people to do – they all go to Krakow, 20 minutes away by tram. When the steel mill was operational, both Nowa Huta and Krakow were heavily affected by smoke and acid rain. The aerial photos show the relative sizes of Krakow, Nowa Huta and the steelworks.
Because the communists were against religion and religious icons, other imagery replaced them.For example ceramic plates were attached to ceilings and decorative ceramic chandeliers were made for the city.
Eventually a church was built which took ten years to complete and is full of symbolism a result of pressure on both sides. For example the cross on top is not visible from below, and is orientated so that from the city it looks just like a spire.
In effect overall, Nowa Huta is not unlike new townships built on the outskirts of Sydney, lacking in infrastructure, employment and social cohesion. Over 65 years years later though, a community built essentially from farmers and unskilled workers has developed a strong sense of identity and identify more strongly with Nowa Huta than Krakow.
We didn’t get back from the tour until around 4pm – five and a half hours after we started! We were tired and starving. After a quick snack we both flaked out and had a sleep. Communism is taking its toll on us as well.
We only had a short time then to prepare for an 8pm concert by the Royal Chamber Orchestra. They are a small four-string orchestra whose music is “the perfect combination of excellent taste, unlimited imagination and the perfect technique. They performed a selection of old and modern classics, including works such as Piazzola’s Libertango.The performance takes place on an upper floor of a 15the century building and we were greeted with a small glass of sparkling wine on arrival. Fortunately the music was better than the wine.
The leader, Kamil Skicki, is a bit of a character and wove some virtuoso and humourous elements into a personalised interpretation of some pieces. From what I could tell, their playing was superb.We were seated only a couple of metres away from the quartet, and the acoustics in the room were excellent, which made the music quite enveloping. Absolutely worthwhile.
After the Royal Chamber Orchestra performance, we stopped at a small local restaurant for a late evening snack. Frances just had a simple Borscht, and I finally got Stuffed Cabbage. The Borscht was a bit thin, but the flavour was good. The Stuffed Cabbage came with a creamy tomato sauce which was unusually tasty. It had a slight hint of curry (we’ve noticed this a bit in Poland) but a little too salty. It went very well with a wheat beer though.
Some final photos from Krakow: Typical regional ceramics, a cartoon shop and a the obligatory manhole cover.
