Nowa Huta

When you mention Nowa Huta in Krakow you get two different answers. Either : “ it is such a great place, a bit grunge, anti-conformist, a place for artists…” or a simple “ this place is ugly, just a remain of Krakow’s communist past”.                                                                     

First time I went there (40 minutes by tram from the center) I was in between. I could understand both opinions. Nowa Huta was built in order to be the perfect communist city in a typical Stalinian architecture and you figure this out easily while walking in the streets between giant plain concrete buidings. " Nowa Huta means in Polish “The New Foundry”, (steel was in the center of the construction) it was built in the 1950’s and now it is a very industrial place “owned” by Arcelor Mittal.                                   

Nowa Huta is definitely not a place where tourists will stay or visit, they prefer the magnificent main square or the Royal castle of Wawel. However you will aalsofind in Nowa Huta huge parks unlike any you will find in the center.                                                                                                                                  

Nowa Huta is also the center of where began the resistance to communist regime “Solidarnosc”.        

If you want to see a totally different aspect of Krakow, you should spend some time walking randomly in the large streets of Nowa Huta.