HG's recent post on the Architecture and Culture 302 projects inspired me to write a follow up post. One of the projects every year focuses on Auschwitz, and I see that this year has been no exception. I recently visited Auschwitz, but I'm not going to write about that. I'm sure Auschwitz has been enough discussed. I think instead, I shall write about Krakow, the nearest major city to Auschwitz, and a city which has been very much impacted by recent history. World War II, and then the the subsequent communist period both took a toll on the city both socially and in terms of the urban fabric. I found Krakow a fascinating place to visit, because it is a city undergoing a lot of change. It really feels like it has just found itself again. However, as it undergoes so much change and renewal, it is also in danger of losing its old self as its people attempt to erase the painful history.
When I visited Krakow, I stayed with a friend of mine. She was born in Krakow and she studied in Krakow. She has an interest in political science, and she can rattle off several centuries of Polish history including dates and details. Essentially she was an ideal tour guide, because she knew why things were like that.
Before WWII Krakow had a large Jewish population; it now has a large number of buildings with no known owner. Many of these buildings are crumbling after more than half a century without maintenance. Many of these crumbling buildings, surprisingly, had people living in parts of them. As we walked along a street past buildings in varied states of repair one day, my friend walked in through what to me looked like a front door, a private space I would never have thought to enter. We walked across an entrance hall which had a large crack running the length of the tiled floor, one side of the crack being several centimetres higher than the other. We passed though this bizarre urine scented place ignoring the staircase and walking straight into the garden courtyard beyond. From the garden we could see the windows of the various apartments in the building. Some were obviously vacant, with broken or boarded up windows; but then, just next to, just above or just below windows like this there were windows which looked lived in and looked after, with clean curtains and neat flowers growing over the sills. It was quite remarkable. The city as a whole was like that: abandoned buildings grey and cracked were right next to ones which had been carefully repaired and painted in bold clean pastel colours.
an abandoned building
