For The Love of Travel

Got up early for the 2 + hours drive into Wroclaw. Crazy shenanigans on the autostrada, with guys ‘channelling’ Mario Andreotti, weaving in and out of laneways, at I reckon 150kms. Scary!

Wroclaw may never have lost its ancient Polish element – 20,000 Poles lived here before World War II – but Poles would never have imagined that the city would become a part of the motherland again.  Wroclaw became Polish again by default. Stalin prodded Churchill and Roosevelt into rolling Poland west in 1945. Poland lost the cities of Lwow and Vilnius and gained the bombed out shells of Breslau (Wroclaw) and Danzig (Gdansk).      As soon as I got into Wroclaw, breathed a sigh of relief….now this is a city I like. Lots of green, old architecture, cafes and restaurants….time to wander aimlessly around the Old Town, keeping my eyes peeled for Wroclaw’s adorable and elusive gnomes; there are over 300 around town.

But first, I’d booked into the Raclawice Panorama, a 140m long canvas depicting Kosciuszko’s legendary (and short-lived) victory over the Russians in 1794 – this is one of the only remaining panoramic paintings in the world – a genre popular in the 19thC.

Then to view the Old City from the top of the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, a Gothic church and landmark in the city. A climb of 50 steps up a narrow stone staircase and mercifully, a lift to the top.  An amazing view over Cathedral Island, and once back in the church, incredible gold door that leads to the top of the pulpit, inside. Loved the leadlight as well.

And a lover’s bridge that’s packing heaps of locks!

When you tire gazing at cherubs, gargoyles and bearded national heroes, you can find your way to the cnr. of Pilsudskiego and Swidnicka to get a new take on public art….Jerzy Kalina’s wonderfully lifelike bronze “Anonymous Pedestrians” descending into the earth – a tribute to those who worked in underground organisations to undermine the Soviet regime? They would have looked even better in rainy conditions!

Love my boutique hotel on the edge of the old city, surrounded by parkland and part of a hipster neighbourhood! THE most delicious salmon meal I have EVER had, I think cooked sous-vide. It was perfect! 

I walked past Nalanda cafe and was instantly drawn inside…its vegan, gluten free, eco cosmetics – with a bookstore. A special place where good literature, fair trade coffee, and energy-giving food is all under one roof. 

Katowice is a blue-collar city, growing up during the industrial revolution, with its people being put to work in sooty mine shafts, factories and railway yards.  The area’s history is inextricably entwined with the manufacture of coal and steel and the stacks, shafts, slag heaps and massive waves of migrants that followed the discovery of the region’s mineral resources.

Derelict factories and foundries, blackened chimneys and abandoned maintenance yards of Silesia’s industrial boom represent the bulk of Silesia’s tourist offerings today. Grey, bleak for the most part…..Freedom Square’s small oval of greenish pleasantry stands out in the urban tangle and was the city’s main axis point in the first city plan of 1860. There used to be “Tomb of the Unknown Insurgent” in 1923, unveiled by one of the heroes of the Silesian Uprisings, Wojciech Korfanty (see below for info on him). However during Soviet rule, that memorial was replaced with a monument of 2 thuggish tommy-wielding Red Army soldiers standing atop a truly hideous concrete pedestal – they were removed in 2014 after years of protests. Some city functionary wasn’t specific enough in their instruction…because while the thugs have gone, the hideous pedestal remains…… 🙂

I went looking for and found some treasures but they were difficult to find. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tatiana’s restaurant – delicious sour rye soup (zurek) and wabbit for lunch!  Always love a good statue, especially when they are of figures that have created change i their time….and these 2 couldn’t be different from each other… Józef Klemens Piłsudski was Chief of State (1918–22), “First Marshal of Poland ” (from 1920), and defacto leader (1926–35) of the Second Polish Republic. From mid-World War I he had a major influence in Poland’s politics and was an important figure on the European political scene. He was the person most responsible for the creation of the Second Polish Republic in 1918, 123 years after it had been taken over by Russia, Austria and Prussia.

A Polish national activist, journalist and politician, Wojciech Korfanty (April 20, 1873 – August 17, 1939) achieved infamy as a paramilitary leader during the Silesian Uprisings. Born the son of a Polish Silesian miner, in his early life Korfanty studied philosophy, law and economics at the University of Breslau (Wroclaw) becoming involved in Polish nationalist circles as a young man and joining the secret nationalist society “Z,” which resisted the Germanisation of Upper Silesia’s Polish population in the decades prior to World War I.  After World War I, Korfanty was one of the chief advocates of joining Upper Silesia and other eastern German territories to the new post-war Polish Republic. As diplomacy failed, ‘Uprisings’ were successful in forcing the German authorities to leave Upper Silesia. Korfanty was largely credited by Poles for his role in the outcome when Silesia’s most valuable industrial districts were granted to Poland after the war.

Started out of Brno at 9am…drizzle, traffic jam on the opposite side of the highway heading into Brno. 3 hours later get into Katowice, weather has improved, some sun! But can’t find my airB&B at the address I have. Ring…discover they are redecorating and have a new place on the other side of town for me, ‘just as nice’. I love my GPS! If I didn’t have that, would be seriously stressed. Mission accomplished in 15 mins! Keys to apartment and apartment block handed over, I’m shown car garaging facility and remote control function ….over to you they say. Just leave our keys @ level O in box 34! No worries I say, thinking….I think I have all that.

Consulted my crib notes and decided to drive to Katowice’s no 1. attraction, Nikiszowiec estate.  It’s a worker’s housing estate of red brick apartment blocks grouped around gardenlike courtyards, there’s a red brick church and other buildings, all close to the mine and green surroundings…. a pearl of social housing architecture; designed in the late 19thC, Nikiszowiec initially was a coal miners’ settlement of Giesche mine between 1908–1918. In 1960, Nikiszowiec was incorporated as a part of Katowice. 
The remnants of the original workers’ housing estate ‘familoks’ (specialized multi-family residences designed for workers in heavy industry) comprise one of Poland’s official national ‘Historic Monuments’. 

Close by, the Galeria Szyb Wilson is a modern art gallery. Arguably Katowice’s best art space, comprising an impressive 2,500 square metres divided into three halls. It was supposed to be full of “seriously bonkers, yet compellingly high quality sculpture, graphic and installation art- some playful, some political – hidden throughout the dozens of small nooks spidering throughout the building”.
When I went there today, lots of empty walls, ladders, canvass covers…either they are preparing for an exhibition … or….closing down. Nice to see a few paintings though and loved the ivy covered building outside! 

I’ve also contacted the National Archives of Katowice and asked questions about Mum’s side of the family and hopefully they’ll get back to me on those.