Duration: 3 hours
Categories: Culture & History, Cruises & Sailing, Outdoors
Group size: 1 - 12
See an entirely different world only a half an hour tram ride from the hectic city centre of Krakow. Experience an Urban Adventure in the legendary Nowa Huta district where thousands of workers came after World War II to build their new houses around “Stalin’s gift” – the biggest steelworks in Poland. Here we will show you an "ideal" socialist town and we will tell you about the true life of "people from steel and iron" and their neighbours who used to live here their daily joys and sorrows, standing in never-ending lines to buy Cuban bananas or a roll of toilet paper or watching obligatory TV communist news. You will feel like you are watching an old black and white movie amidst today’s world of colour!
Discover the fascinating history, incredible urban structure and atmosphere of one of Europe’s most intriguing Communist cities. Join a local English-speaking guide in front of the main gate to the old Lenin’s Steelworks Administrative Centre (Centrum Administracyjne) and start the tour with a short description of the place which is called by local residents ‘the Doge’s Palace’, ‘the Vatican’ or even ‘the Pentagon’.
Continue your adventure by going by the local tram to the Central Square, beautifully equipped with the propaganda architecture and social realist art of the 1950s and 60s. On the Avenue of Roses (al. Roz), come closer to the place where a huge statue of Lenin used to stand majestically before it was finally pulled down. Walk a few steps to the local Cultural Centre to see a huge map of the whole, new-erected city. Try to imagine the big, socialistic Town Hall and enormous Main Square, two monuments that were never built, but were planned to be ten times bigger than their counterparts in Krakow.
Learn a little about the history before moving on to satisfy your stomach! Stop and drink a glass of vodka in a typical Communist bar and after that, feeling as spirited as former Steelworkers who frequented the bar, continue on to see the legendry Nowa Huta Cross connected with 1960 anti-communist and anti-police riots. Stroll over to what could be considered the real cultural heart of the town - The People’s Theatre inaugurated in 1955 and consider to be the best experimental theatre, famous of many prominent directors and great actors.
Finish the tour by visiting the Lord’s Ark (Arka Pana) – the first ever church of the Nowa Huta district to be built after WWII - symbol of massacres conducted by the ZOMO troops, numerous demonstrations of Solidarity and the unity of the whole Christian world in fighting against communist system. You’ll finish your tour with a new understanding of life in Krakow’s Communist era, and a new appreciation for the history of this region.
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