It is funny for me personally because I travel to Poland every summer, so in my mind I have memories of Poland collected as annual timestamps that I can compare through and see the progress year-after-year.
One of the things that stands out most is how each time I visit, there is always old shabby building that are renovated beautifully, or an infill development on a block that once had an empty overgrown lot, or a new development or commercial block or mall built.
The progress over my lifetime is astounding, I still remember how things looked like as a kid. Sometimes, I think Poles who live there and experience it everyday don’t see the progress in milestones the way I do and are forgetful of just how much progress has been made.
The glow up of countries that were previously occupied the soviets is heartwarming. I am from Tallinn, Estonia and seeing what kind of shithole some parts of the city were transformed to even after 25 years is astonishing.
Every country in Europe is prosperous if it's not under russian rule.
You live in a beautiful city and country. My wife grew up there under communism and she can’t believe the transformation. Krakow was my favorite place to visit.
This is what I feel in Poland. I am from southern Europe and I see things so stagnant. I have been living in Poland for 9 years and once in a while still get the "why did you move to Poland if you come from a sunny country". And this is usually my response, you can see progress year on year. You can see modern buildings being built, new renovations, new projects and things get better.
It is true Poland had and still has a long way ahead, but it is so pleasing to see the constant evolution and progress.
We see the progress since it also affects us. E.g. Since I was a kid there was this one road that never been really renovated except covering potholes, until recently.
They made a bike and a walk lane to the nearest town (~10km road renovated in total). Mind you, this is all a rural area but the road is pretty congested in the summer since there are a lot of lakes around here.
The biggest difference for me as a visitor from the US was between 2006 when I first visited Poznan and 2011 when I was there for the second time. The whole demeanor of the city changed. There was color and vibrancy that wasn't there before. Then when I returned again to Poznan in 2019 it was a totally different city even from 2011. The difference was amazing.
Well, Warsaw was literally destroyed after war and almost everything has to be rebulid.
I live in Łódź and people who lived here sometimes call it "renovation city", mostly beacuse constantly blocked by buliders streets, but bulidngs also get renovated sometimes.
I don't know how its in other parts of Poland but that type of renovations seem normal to me
I get the annoyance but look at the results. We were talking yesterday in 2we4u about how Włókiennicza used to be "the murder street" and now it's beautiful and we have families gathering listening to public concerts in the middle of the street every Sunday.
Warsaw's Praga suburb on the left-bank side of the Vistula used to be gopnik central where it was usual to get your phone stolen and your ass beaten. It was full of factories and warehouses, that got turned into upscale bourgie housing, completely unrecognizable from what was there 20-30 years ago.
Oh, yeah, I've went there a few times to eat cheap oysters and prosecco on Sunday mornings back when I lived in Warsaw! From that and conversations with my coworkers I thought it must have been hipsterland (do hipsters exist anymore?).
80-90% it seems insane, but Germans really wanted the city wiped off the map after the Warsaw Uprising. There's a video of how it looked like at the end of the war in the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It's grim.
The poles are really good at restaurations. So much destruction from german and russian invasions and occupations lead to plenty opportunities to practise.
I studied in Krakow for a year as an Erasmus student and met lots of people who came to Krakow to study stuff specifically related to restaurations. That was quite unexpected.
Common, but the buildings that were destroyed during the war were rebuilt as those blocks during PRL, and a lot of buildings that weren't destroyed were just demolished and new buildings were again, massive concrete cubes
So while those renovations are common, the sheer number of those renovations needed makes it look like not a lot is being done
A lot of the city center backstreets look like that too. South of the center there is loads of buildings straight out of 18th century and Ujazdowskie alleys are littered with old villas where nobility used to live.
Also Muranów (a district that was mostly jewish and is north of the center) was completely destroyed during the war and was then rebuilt in a way that resembles the original, with one exception: Some buildings are built on taller foundations, the foundations being literal rubble of the old district.
Never been to Warsaw, but that was the feeling I had in Gdansk. The logical part of my brain knew there was almost nothing left of the city at the end of the war, and at the same time the more fanciful part of my brain had the sense of being surrounded by something that had been there unchanged for centuries. It's an amazing illusion.
Gdańsk accomplishes this tremendously well, one of the best in Europe for the phenomenon you described.
Lots of revitalization took place in recent years that built on this effect, but even as a child over 20 years ago, I didn’t realize everything that I was walking through was in fact new, it looked like it had always stood there.
I mean that illusion only works when you have no idea what the city used to look like. Pre WW2 the old town was a huge area of winding alleys and tiny squares, with buildings from different centuries. Today it's been reduced to a few straight streets of pretty but rather generic looking houses. Still a better reconstruction effort than most other cities though.
This is what I expect when a country says they want to keep their heritage, not always “foreigners bad” but these type of things show you care because this is not cheap.
You mean the view that immigrants should respect our culture and actually integrate? I'm not sure what's so scandalous about it. We don't want ghettos in our cities.
If that was the case then the white, English-speaking immigrants who live in what are effectively enclaves would be hated as much as the non-white immigrants working lower wage jobs.
I mean, I hope it was obvious 😶 (I am myself a white immigrant to Sweden, from Germany, and I hate that some people actually make that distinction lol)
I know immigrants who won't integrate either because they don't know the language, or don't want to know the language, are usually forced by other factors than their own will to live in ghettos. That's how districts of people of certain nationality form, as it's easier for them to speak their language, and never learn the local language of the place they moved to. I believe the policy should concentrate on helping them integrate, but the truth is, they are often just left to their own devices.
We're understanding to inability and tolerant of it. It's the unwillingness that gets us. If you escape your own homeland because your fucked up culture made it inhabitable for you, why come and try to spread same fucked up culture to make ours inhabitable as well ?
If you wish to come and settle then come and settle and become a part of the nation. Don't come and try to change it to the fucked up one you escaped from instead.
I think it's because Poland adapted really quickly after PRL, that's why your grandfather might have different view on us.
In my my home town majority of people were still riding horses just 30 years ago. And 10 years later most people already had cars. I just find it amusing how my grandfather most of his life didn't have electricity, running water, a car but it changed drastically in span of about 10 years.
(I know the experience might be different in bigger cities, but my home town is a really really small and far from any bigger city)
Heh... Szpitalna Street in Warsaw. You can see our windows on the first floor. A huge flat by today's standards. I was born here and lived here throughout my childhood. My great-grandmother died during that time – she had her own room on the other side. My mother worked for Laurent as a hairdresser. In the large room stood a black piano from which my father had removed the last strings to repair something. Our neighbour Tereska, her beads and strong perfume. A wooden staircase and a lift like something out of a horror film. The early 2000s and drug addicts sticking syringes into window sills. So much history... But it won't come back – the flat was sold long ago, the family has dispersed...
the communists stripped a lot of decorations like this after ww2 - literally stripping from buildings trim pieces because it represented values they didnt like.
sadly the vast majority of buildings havent been restored. on some less maintained buildings to this day you can see a fade on where the trim pieces used to be that were removed by soviets.
Entire modernism (1920’s to 1980’s) was against „unnecessary” ornamentation and leaving only „pure” form. During both 2nd RP and PRL buildings were stripped out of decorations, as it was fashionable at the time - just like historicisms (restoration of original ornaments) is popular right now. Similarly, in 2050’s we might also have completely different feelings about modern day architecture.
RP = Rzeczpospolita = "The Commonwealth". While the official English name of the country is "Republic of Poland", the Polish name is Rzeczpospolita Polska, i.e. "Polish Commonwealth".
1st RP: the Polish-Lithuanian one, 1569-1795.
2nd RP: the interwar one, 1918-1945.
PRL: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, "People's Republic of Poland". The socialist Soviet satellite state, 1952-1989.
3rd RP: the modern-day democratic country created in 1990.
Not always, but that was certainly part of it. Particularly in the Republics of the Soviet Union. The USSR was cheap and rather than restore the buildings, they often just leveled everything and built cheap concrete houses on top.
In some cases the USSR did restore a select few historically significant buildings, but oftentimes that wasn't the case.
At other times, this was done even before WW2 as a sort of cultural cleansing in the sense that it was considered distasteful and excessive. Not sure what they were smoking. I suppose they got bored of seeing the same type of architecture everywhere.
the communists stripped a lot of decorations like this after ww2 - literally stripping from buildings trim pieces because it represented values they didnt like.
Western Germany did the same, because traditional architecture was and still is associated with Nazism.
My understanding is that the nazis stripped the ornamentation from buildings. Berlin has many interesting examples where neighboring Altbau buildings have inversed facades depending on whether the Nazis had already gone through their own bureaucracy to remove them from a particular owner
When we tried to do this in skopje people started protesting becouse they loved their brutalist city and started hugging buildings, now they are as ugly as ever
Because it's associated with traditionalism, which is too close to Nazism. And because most German cities are nominally too wealthy to request EU funds for such renovations, even though the cities mostly look like the before picture in the post.
The process of "Entstuckung" predates the Nazis and was also practised by them.
One reason why it's done is because its much lower maintenance and costs less. Naturally you then save additional money also not doing proper maintenance on the "entstuckt" buildings, such as giving them a regular clean paintjob.
This one, as well many other similar cases, were not renovates with EU funding.
Owners simply bet that higher investment in ornamentation will result in higher return on investment (because people really prefer living in these kinds of buildings compared to dull ones, so they are willing to pay more for it).
For this to work, demand must be here. If in Germany people wanting to live there might be afraid to be labelled as nazis by their peers, then doing this won't lead to higher demand and higher prices. But I don't know if that is really the case. I suspect that bigger issue would be that there are simply no architects knowing how to do that, let alone be willing to do that, because nothing other than modernism is accepted among them.
Several "no money from the EU for this" comments. Seriously people, what the hell.
A) Germany still has way more money so if the government wanted to it could do the same.
B) Apparently money going to checks notes renovation of the living spaces is bad. I guess it would have been better if someone pocketed it instead. If it truly came out of EU funds wouldn't that be a great proof that Poland uses the money for things the money is meant to be used for???
At least you managed to renovate most of your old buildings.
I prefer plain but neat facades rather than dilapidated buildings that will be waiting next 50 for the renovation because the local conservator of monuments doesn't permit to do simple renovation like in Germany.
As a German I visited Warsaw and it was quite emotional to see the uprise memorial, the renovations of the destroyed old city and also the memorial of chancellor Willy Brandt kneeing down apologizing for the unspeakable horror done by the Nazis.
We can only survive if we learn to apologize, unite and live in peace. So the opposite of what the three biggest military powers currently doing to the world. Don't vote for haters.
Poland's done an amazing job with this, especially Warsaw's Old Town.
I visited Warsaw a few years back and the reconstruction is so detailed you'd never know it was rebuilt from scratch after WWII. The Barbican, the Royal Castle, all those colorful townhouses in the market square - they used old paintings and photographs to get every detail right. My Polish friend was telling me how they literally sifted through rubble to find original bricks and decorative elements to reuse.. The dedication is incredible. Same with places like Gdansk and Wroclaw. Though i do wonder sometimes about the philosophical question of whether a completely rebuilt building is still "historic" or if it becomes something new entirely. But when you're standing in those squares it doesn't really matter - the atmosphere and sense of place is all there.
Traditional architecture and lost buildings deserve to be restored and rebuilt, for they add a vital layer to a city’s soul. Old-world architecture carry’s the memory of centuries, and when they stand beside modern glass towers, the city becomes not just a place to live, but a dialogue across time…..a testament to what we were, what we are, and what we aspire to be.
I was really surprised at how beautiful Warsaw is. The areas that were rebuilt, sometimes using the original bricks are astonishing achievements.
Something’s got to be done about “The Finger of Stalin”, though.
No, the render looks a bit over the top and I liked the original brickwork. Someone else pointed out that the PolService sign is a little bit of history too.
The new one is nice but it would have been just as good with a clean, cable removal and some repointing.
You're not the only one. I can't stand newly renovated buildings like this. Besides, the old building had character with the advertising up there, and it ironically looked older; now it looks like any other generic turn-of-the-century building. There's a reason why they stopped building in that style at some point... too much ornamentation.
I liked before better as well. The before looked super urban almost New York like, but now it looks overly sanitized and something you'd see at Disney World.
Man I wish we did that in Germany. There are SO many buildings that are just plain, boring blocks, when there used to be architecturally gorgeous buildings there before they got bombed to shit in WW2. All the new buildings from the last few years are equally as boring.
TL/DW: cost to install, cost of maintenance, changing tastes due to modernism movement, perception that ornamentation is related to capitalist greed and ego of the capitalists who are just doing it to show off their wealth rather than perceiving civic beauty as public art and a benefit to everyone
Shame it doesn't seem to happen in Ireland. There's a real hatred for old buildings, the only solution for an "eyesore" is to tear it down and put up a bland, boring and cheap looking glass box in its place.
To me, it’s beautiful that Warsaw is restoring its architectural heritage…
It’s such a great pity that rather than doing what Warsaw is doing, London is being relentlessly pumped out to huge international property developers to rape and pillage while running off back overseas with the big profits…. While London and Londoners have to live with the insipid overbearing crap they build…💩💩💩
I remember reading in a history book that after WWII that there was a consensus among Poles across all ideological spectra to rebuild Warsaw as accurately and faithfully as possible.
Interesting my city does the opposite removes buildings with some character but instead of building something beautiful with color and more character that blends in they put up a grey concrete Shoe box
It is nice, but after watching that one video that talked about old and new building styles, I realize that it's just relatively affordable trimming. Nothing architecturally interesting. Just a big box with small, lined-up windows and generous tolerances.
I hate this. They also did this in Budapest. Stop destroying your past. There's beauty in these designs. Not every place has to look like Vienna or Paris smh
As an architect, this is a double-edged sword, actually.
On one hand, you have an architectural "heritage" considered official. On the other, you have a moment in history, in this case Soviet/brutalist architecture, which is also part of history.
There is no restoration in this case, there is only distortion.
Architectural style is a passage through time. It's as if we took all the Art Deco buildings in New York and covered them with Neoclassical architecture, with Greco-Roman elements, under the excuse that it is the nation's heritage style.
Are these kind of renovations common in Poland?
they try, but there's just too many buildings and most arent restored still.
but there is a difference noticable if you go back eg. 10 years and now, much better now.
It is funny for me personally because I travel to Poland every summer, so in my mind I have memories of Poland collected as annual timestamps that I can compare through and see the progress year-after-year.
One of the things that stands out most is how each time I visit, there is always old shabby building that are renovated beautifully, or an infill development on a block that once had an empty overgrown lot, or a new development or commercial block or mall built.
The progress over my lifetime is astounding, I still remember how things looked like as a kid. Sometimes, I think Poles who live there and experience it everyday don’t see the progress in milestones the way I do and are forgetful of just how much progress has been made.
Nah, we see it, we see it. We are proud as well.
I wish Germany would do it as well but for whatever reason people are opposed to it or don't want money spent on it.
We ARE doing this, and on a massive scale. Here's just one example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP1PGQp88I0
Apart of the 25%, which are pro Polexit.
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That shows how big of a difference a nice and clean environment makes on every single resident.
Congratulations!
I think that the scars from the yoke of Soviet occupation are finally disappearing.
The glow up of countries that were previously occupied the soviets is heartwarming. I am from Tallinn, Estonia and seeing what kind of shithole some parts of the city were transformed to even after 25 years is astonishing.
Every country in Europe is prosperous if it's not under russian rule.
You live in a beautiful city and country. My wife grew up there under communism and she can’t believe the transformation. Krakow was my favorite place to visit.
This is what I feel in Poland. I am from southern Europe and I see things so stagnant. I have been living in Poland for 9 years and once in a while still get the "why did you move to Poland if you come from a sunny country". And this is usually my response, you can see progress year on year. You can see modern buildings being built, new renovations, new projects and things get better.
It is true Poland had and still has a long way ahead, but it is so pleasing to see the constant evolution and progress.
We see the progress since it also affects us. E.g. Since I was a kid there was this one road that never been really renovated except covering potholes, until recently. They made a bike and a walk lane to the nearest town (~10km road renovated in total). Mind you, this is all a rural area but the road is pretty congested in the summer since there are a lot of lakes around here.
Whats up with the mall prices tho? Costlier than other parts of eu
The biggest difference for me as a visitor from the US was between 2006 when I first visited Poznan and 2011 when I was there for the second time. The whole demeanor of the city changed. There was color and vibrancy that wasn't there before. Then when I returned again to Poznan in 2019 it was a totally different city even from 2011. The difference was amazing.
If you go again today it will be completely new. They redid the entire downtown centrum core, renovations finished earlier this year.
Now I want to go back. I've got a bunch of friends in Poznan and another in Gniezno. I'm sure I can find someone to visit.
The thing I read up on when I visited is that after WWII, there was a huge effort to reconstruct most historical buildings to their former state.
It's good to see this strategy wasn't abandoned.
So, seems like they do great then, when they have such a keen eye on city picture and potential tourist appeal through that.
Trying to get away from brutalism slav look.
Its what happens when one facist dictator levels your cities and another communist dictator „rebuilds“ them.
There is a map of abandoned buildings in Warsaw, Google: "Mapa Warszawskich Pustostanów".
It's shame that there is so many of them.
Warsaw is the only capital in Europe where you can see a glass skyscraper next to an abandoned dilapidated building.
Well, Warsaw was literally destroyed after war and almost everything has to be rebulid.
I live in Łódź and people who lived here sometimes call it "renovation city", mostly beacuse constantly blocked by buliders streets, but bulidngs also get renovated sometimes.
I don't know how its in other parts of Poland but that type of renovations seem normal to me
I get the annoyance but look at the results. We were talking yesterday in 2we4u about how Włókiennicza used to be "the murder street" and now it's beautiful and we have families gathering listening to public concerts in the middle of the street every Sunday.
Warsaw's Praga suburb on the left-bank side of the Vistula used to be gopnik central where it was usual to get your phone stolen and your ass beaten. It was full of factories and warehouses, that got turned into upscale bourgie housing, completely unrecognizable from what was there 20-30 years ago.
Oh, yeah, I've went there a few times to eat cheap oysters and prosecco on Sunday mornings back when I lived in Warsaw! From that and conversations with my coworkers I thought it must have been hipsterland (do hipsters exist anymore?).
right-bank*
It was around ¾ of the city destroyed right?
Warsaw was supposed to be the example of Germanization by the 3rd Reich. Iirc Warsaw was one of the most damaged cities in the war.
80-90% it seems insane, but Germans really wanted the city wiped off the map after the Warsaw Uprising. There's a video of how it looked like at the end of the war in the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It's grim.
Such a great museum.
Less than a year before the end. Everybody must have known it was over. Total madness!
It depends on the city. For example Bydgoszcz also has changed a lot by the last 10 years. But e.g. Bytom or Gorzów Wielkopolski still look like shit.
I'm not sure if everyone knows enough to correctly understand that it was destroyed by German occupiers during the war, not destroyed after the war.
And trillions owed for said damage
The poles are really good at restaurations. So much destruction from german and russian invasions and occupations lead to plenty opportunities to practise.
I studied in Krakow for a year as an Erasmus student and met lots of people who came to Krakow to study stuff specifically related to restaurations. That was quite unexpected.
Your German is peeking. The word is restoration in English. :)
French?
Its hard to say, because lot of lot of city tenement homes built in Art Nouveau style were restyled (simpliefied) already in 30'.
Unfortunately not, but I'd really would like to see more of these
I have seen similar transformations of the old town buildings in Bucharest romania. There is sooooo much gorgeous architecture in these countries.
Common, but the buildings that were destroyed during the war were rebuilt as those blocks during PRL, and a lot of buildings that weren't destroyed were just demolished and new buildings were again, massive concrete cubes
So while those renovations are common, the sheer number of those renovations needed makes it look like not a lot is being done
It’s wild how Warsaw feels like a time machine rebuilt history that somehow looks older than most original cities.
Really? Never been but I always heard that it looks modern except for the old town area
Largely true but there are smatterings of pre-war streets and buildings in other parts of the city centre. More than you might expect
this is what always surprises me, even after 16 years living here. I love randomly stumbling upon those bits
Come and see for yourself, I think you may be surprised. BTW, I was in Vienna two years ago, absolutely magnificent city
I will. Vienna is nice indeed. A lot of grand buildings, some people say it lacks personal charm but I always love it ❤️
I’m from Warsaw, love both Vienna and my city. Beautiful places. And Vienna doesn’t lack anything. It’s 10/10 city for me.
A lot of the city center backstreets look like that too. South of the center there is loads of buildings straight out of 18th century and Ujazdowskie alleys are littered with old villas where nobility used to live.
Also Muranów (a district that was mostly jewish and is north of the center) was completely destroyed during the war and was then rebuilt in a way that resembles the original, with one exception: Some buildings are built on taller foundations, the foundations being literal rubble of the old district.
Never been to Warsaw, but that was the feeling I had in Gdansk. The logical part of my brain knew there was almost nothing left of the city at the end of the war, and at the same time the more fanciful part of my brain had the sense of being surrounded by something that had been there unchanged for centuries. It's an amazing illusion.
Gdańsk accomplishes this tremendously well, one of the best in Europe for the phenomenon you described.
Lots of revitalization took place in recent years that built on this effect, but even as a child over 20 years ago, I didn’t realize everything that I was walking through was in fact new, it looked like it had always stood there.
I mean that illusion only works when you have no idea what the city used to look like. Pre WW2 the old town was a huge area of winding alleys and tiny squares, with buildings from different centuries. Today it's been reduced to a few straight streets of pretty but rather generic looking houses. Still a better reconstruction effort than most other cities though.
What Europe did to itself in the XX century is a cultural tragedy.
I appreciate that XX can mean 20 in Roman numerals, and also a placeholder for any century AD up to and including 99.
I think it looks modern in some way.
This is what I expect when a country says they want to keep their heritage, not always “foreigners bad” but these type of things show you care because this is not cheap.
Wait till you hear the Polish's mainstream view on immigration
You mean the view that immigrants should respect our culture and actually integrate? I'm not sure what's so scandalous about it. We don't want ghettos in our cities.
If that was the case then the white, English-speaking immigrants who live in what are effectively enclaves would be hated as much as the non-white immigrants working lower wage jobs.
But they're not
Well, duh! Those are expats, not immigrants! * /s
please tell me you just forgot the /s
I mean, I hope it was obvious 😶 (I am myself a white immigrant to Sweden, from Germany, and I hate that some people actually make that distinction lol)
Vertrau mir wenn ich dir sage, die Grenzen zwischen Sarkasmus und realer Meinung verschwinden immer mehr auf dieser gottverdammten App lol
Manchmal habe ich kurze Momente wo ich noch an die Menschheit glaube, der Rest ist ein einziger Fiebertraum.
Do you think immigrants prefer living in ghettos?
I know immigrants who won't integrate either because they don't know the language, or don't want to know the language, are usually forced by other factors than their own will to live in ghettos. That's how districts of people of certain nationality form, as it's easier for them to speak their language, and never learn the local language of the place they moved to. I believe the policy should concentrate on helping them integrate, but the truth is, they are often just left to their own devices.
It's not even that deep. My Polish SUCKS but people are super nice and patient to me because at least I try!
The ones this discussion is about usually also mostly try.
You missed the point. Their values and inability (refusal) to integrate keep them in their cultural ghetto.
We're understanding to inability and tolerant of it. It's the unwillingness that gets us. If you escape your own homeland because your fucked up culture made it inhabitable for you, why come and try to spread same fucked up culture to make ours inhabitable as well ?
If you wish to come and settle then come and settle and become a part of the nation. Don't come and try to change it to the fucked up one you escaped from instead.
Many are attempting to colonize your nation, they don’t want to join your country they want to take it for their own.
oh fuck off back to twitter, kindly
Some, yes
I'm an immigrant in Poland and I've always been welcomed with open arms
We have absolutely no obligation, legal or moral, to welcome foreigners with open arms.
You certainly have a moral obligation, perhaps not a legal one though.
Genuine efforts to preserve the local culture for future generations can exist next to stupid right wing rage in the same country.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entstuckung
You can find some resources in English about that process, and the reversal of it now.
When I was a kid, my grandfather loved to make fun of the Poles. He was a Norwegian, and the Poles were an easy target.
But every single time I come across a Polish area in Geoguesser, I can't help but think that they're doing a LOT of things right given their history.
I think it's because Poland adapted really quickly after PRL, that's why your grandfather might have different view on us. In my my home town majority of people were still riding horses just 30 years ago. And 10 years later most people already had cars. I just find it amusing how my grandfather most of his life didn't have electricity, running water, a car but it changed drastically in span of about 10 years. (I know the experience might be different in bigger cities, but my home town is a really really small and far from any bigger city)
Heh... Szpitalna Street in Warsaw. You can see our windows on the first floor. A huge flat by today's standards. I was born here and lived here throughout my childhood. My great-grandmother died during that time – she had her own room on the other side. My mother worked for Laurent as a hairdresser. In the large room stood a black piano from which my father had removed the last strings to repair something. Our neighbour Tereska, her beads and strong perfume. A wooden staircase and a lift like something out of a horror film. The early 2000s and drug addicts sticking syringes into window sills. So much history... But it won't come back – the flat was sold long ago, the family has dispersed...
the communists stripped a lot of decorations like this after ww2 - literally stripping from buildings trim pieces because it represented values they didnt like.
sadly the vast majority of buildings havent been restored. on some less maintained buildings to this day you can see a fade on where the trim pieces used to be that were removed by soviets.
Entire modernism (1920’s to 1980’s) was against „unnecessary” ornamentation and leaving only „pure” form. During both 2nd RP and PRL buildings were stripped out of decorations, as it was fashionable at the time - just like historicisms (restoration of original ornaments) is popular right now. Similarly, in 2050’s we might also have completely different feelings about modern day architecture.
Lol 2050 is only 25 years from now.
I wish people wouldn't casually throw in random abbreviations like RP and PRL as if people just know what they mean.
RP = Rzeczpospolita = "The Commonwealth". While the official English name of the country is "Republic of Poland", the Polish name is Rzeczpospolita Polska, i.e. "Polish Commonwealth".
1st RP: the Polish-Lithuanian one, 1569-1795.
2nd RP: the interwar one, 1918-1945.
PRL: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, "People's Republic of Poland". The socialist Soviet satellite state, 1952-1989.
3rd RP: the modern-day democratic country created in 1990.
Wasn’t majority of building completely ruined in the war and this was their initial reconstruction look?
Not always, but that was certainly part of it. Particularly in the Republics of the Soviet Union. The USSR was cheap and rather than restore the buildings, they often just leveled everything and built cheap concrete houses on top.
Some cities were completely erased by the USSR. I have an example from my own country - Narva, Estonia: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/de9npz
In some cases the USSR did restore a select few historically significant buildings, but oftentimes that wasn't the case.
At other times, this was done even before WW2 as a sort of cultural cleansing in the sense that it was considered distasteful and excessive. Not sure what they were smoking. I suppose they got bored of seeing the same type of architecture everywhere.
This website sucks but the west does shit like this all the time. It's just about saving money.
https://www.boredpanda.com/house-renovations-that-look-worse-than-before/
#9: I think they need to turn that building off and on again. The polygons are glitching out, and the textures haven't loaded properly.
Western Germany did the same, because traditional architecture was and still is associated with Nazism.
Norway did the same despite the old architecture having no obvious bad associations to it.
Palace of the Republic looked pretty nice and modern. Sure, it had asbestos, but was it necessary to build that medieval monstrosity in its place?
Never heard of historocism being associated with Nazism. And historicism is not traditional architecture...
What absurd nonsense.
You like pretty buildings, huh? You know Hitler also liked pretty buildings, and you don't want to be like Hitler, do you?
My understanding is that the nazis stripped the ornamentation from buildings. Berlin has many interesting examples where neighboring Altbau buildings have inversed facades depending on whether the Nazis had already gone through their own bureaucracy to remove them from a particular owner
Rebeautification is a trend I'm here for! I'm tired of the same old "modern" people warehouses.
When we tried to do this in skopje people started protesting becouse they loved their brutalist city and started hugging buildings, now they are as ugly as ever
We stayed on the fake pirate ship hotel in the river. That was… unique.
A bit sad they they deleted the far more unique heritage of the POLSERVICE sign in the process.
I like my buildings dumpy
Seriously why can't Germany do this to their cities? Like alot of buildings can use a freshen up like this example
Germany does do this Munich and Dresden are 2 cities that have spent money and time trying to keep them traditional and preserve its old culture
Because it's associated with traditionalism, which is too close to Nazism. And because most German cities are nominally too wealthy to request EU funds for such renovations, even though the cities mostly look like the before picture in the post.
The process of "Entstuckung" predates the Nazis and was also practised by them. One reason why it's done is because its much lower maintenance and costs less. Naturally you then save additional money also not doing proper maintenance on the "entstuckt" buildings, such as giving them a regular clean paintjob.
Also it costs money that is spend for the social good and not on cars and Germany can't have that.
This one, as well many other similar cases, were not renovates with EU funding. Owners simply bet that higher investment in ornamentation will result in higher return on investment (because people really prefer living in these kinds of buildings compared to dull ones, so they are willing to pay more for it). For this to work, demand must be here. If in Germany people wanting to live there might be afraid to be labelled as nazis by their peers, then doing this won't lead to higher demand and higher prices. But I don't know if that is really the case. I suspect that bigger issue would be that there are simply no architects knowing how to do that, let alone be willing to do that, because nothing other than modernism is accepted among them.
I saw a video that germany does the opposite. entstuckung?
Several "no money from the EU for this" comments. Seriously people, what the hell. A) Germany still has way more money so if the government wanted to it could do the same. B) Apparently money going to checks notes renovation of the living spaces is bad. I guess it would have been better if someone pocketed it instead. If it truly came out of EU funds wouldn't that be a great proof that Poland uses the money for things the money is meant to be used for???
No money from eu for this.
No need for EU money when you are the EU money
At least you managed to renovate most of your old buildings.
I prefer plain but neat facades rather than dilapidated buildings that will be waiting next 50 for the renovation because the local conservator of monuments doesn't permit to do simple renovation like in Germany.
Heritage of course being a universally fixed concept and time period
Bring beauty back in the public realm.
Been in Krakow the last few days. It's absolutely stunning. Shits all over the UK. Want to move here.
I don’t care about what anyone says we ALL need this 🇪🇺
It wasnt bad before, if they just renewed the paint it would look fine too.
True, it wasn't bad before, but now it looks magnificent.
It's fake because I don't see a Żabka inside
Thats because the Żabka is inside you.
As a German I visited Warsaw and it was quite emotional to see the uprise memorial, the renovations of the destroyed old city and also the memorial of chancellor Willy Brandt kneeing down apologizing for the unspeakable horror done by the Nazis.
We can only survive if we learn to apologize, unite and live in peace. So the opposite of what the three biggest military powers currently doing to the world. Don't vote for haters.
It looks good, well done!
Pretty
That’s really beautiful! Good on y’all, Poland!
That is a great renovation. More beautiful than modern buildings we usually see
Poland's done an amazing job with this, especially Warsaw's Old Town.
I visited Warsaw a few years back and the reconstruction is so detailed you'd never know it was rebuilt from scratch after WWII. The Barbican, the Royal Castle, all those colorful townhouses in the market square - they used old paintings and photographs to get every detail right. My Polish friend was telling me how they literally sifted through rubble to find original bricks and decorative elements to reuse.. The dedication is incredible. Same with places like Gdansk and Wroclaw. Though i do wonder sometimes about the philosophical question of whether a completely rebuilt building is still "historic" or if it becomes something new entirely. But when you're standing in those squares it doesn't really matter - the atmosphere and sense of place is all there.
Beautiful. 100% difference.
Wow! That’s a huge difference
wow incredible work. very impressive.
This is one of the rare cases where I approve of this kind of thing because the building was originally of that period.
Traditional architecture and lost buildings deserve to be restored and rebuilt, for they add a vital layer to a city’s soul. Old-world architecture carry’s the memory of centuries, and when they stand beside modern glass towers, the city becomes not just a place to live, but a dialogue across time…..a testament to what we were, what we are, and what we aspire to be.
Damn is most of that just plaster and facade material being reapplied
id have preferred the top one with new paint over the bottom one
It's not even about recovering heritage.
It's about finally abandoning the cheap box construction, maximizing profits without any concern for the image of the city or the region.
This is why now most cities in EU have some building code and standards you have to meet - the unified look, height etc.
You can't just build whatever you want, as long as you have the plot of land.
I'm sorry to break the illusion but what is being built in polish cities right now is precisely profit-maximising garbage
That's awesome! Poland's cities deserve all the praise for that vibe.
Why do you post a random image from Twitter, without providing context where this is or when it even happened?
how am I supposed to get my pool serviced now?
also, who has a pool in Poland? it's never warm enough.
I need you to know how much I crave this. All of our cities (US) are bland corpo hellscapes of boring glass and concrete, there's no life in them!
That's not explicitly "Polish" that's standard "Gründerzeit" stuff that was mass produced all over Europe back then as well.
I was really surprised at how beautiful Warsaw is. The areas that were rebuilt, sometimes using the original bricks are astonishing achievements. Something’s got to be done about “The Finger of Stalin”, though.
Am I the only one, thinking before looked better?
No, the render looks a bit over the top and I liked the original brickwork. Someone else pointed out that the PolService sign is a little bit of history too.
The new one is nice but it would have been just as good with a clean, cable removal and some repointing.
This is actually reconstruction of original pre-war looks of this building. So actually now is "before".
You're not the only one. I can't stand newly renovated buildings like this. Besides, the old building had character with the advertising up there, and it ironically looked older; now it looks like any other generic turn-of-the-century building. There's a reason why they stopped building in that style at some point... too much ornamentation.
The new one looks like a wedding cake. I don't get how everyone here just salivates over the plaster
I liked before better as well. The before looked super urban almost New York like, but now it looks overly sanitized and something you'd see at Disney World.
The "new" version is overembellished. There are plenty of examples of commie architecture that needed a rework but this isn't one.
It’s incredible how much history is preserved through architecture. Poland’s restoration work is honestly inspiring.
bro, it's just some plaster, it tells nothing of polish heritage or even its arquiteture
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In Hungary they would sell the building to family, give money to renovate it, then buy back for 10x the price
Definite improvement; now they can uncharge 10x more than they could have before the upgrades. It literally looks posh.
Poles are based
A bit of gold paint and that looks like Trump/Putin's style.
They erected a full building next to it as well
how long did it take?I can see the road signals and the shops changed,so i guess it took quite a few years
No more brick-look, hoooray! :-)
Gdzie to jest bo w ogóle nie kojarzę? I co to za budynek?
Man I wish we did that in Germany. There are SO many buildings that are just plain, boring blocks, when there used to be architecturally gorgeous buildings there before they got bombed to shit in WW2. All the new buildings from the last few years are equally as boring.
Oooo! Theres a few good videos on this subject and why we removed all of the ornamentation on old buildings.
From Adam Something: https://youtu.be/8K1kiMDuI8k?si=qItWGlmrM2px9Qv1
Honest Architect: https://youtu.be/nAE_ulAuJWg?si=VstvJyhxVGiX_syE
TL/DW: cost to install, cost of maintenance, changing tastes due to modernism movement, perception that ornamentation is related to capitalist greed and ego of the capitalists who are just doing it to show off their wealth rather than perceiving civic beauty as public art and a benefit to everyone
MOOOOOORE!
Budapest has also an ongoing plan for rebuilding buildings as they were and what they have done so far its amazing.
That's lovely.
Shame it doesn't seem to happen in Ireland. There's a real hatred for old buildings, the only solution for an "eyesore" is to tear it down and put up a bland, boring and cheap looking glass box in its place.
now do it in smaller towns! https://www.google.com/maps/place/Schron+Miechowice/@50.3235644,18.9297904,3a,75y,257.29h,94.43t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sclcWLKBDiY20_6VTmUau9w!2e0!5s20250801T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-4.430160819977843%26panoid%3DclcWLKBDiY20_6VTmUau9w%26yaw%3D257.2885634126569!7i16384!8i8192!4m17!1m9!3m8!1s0x47112cec67fe9f4b:0x15441c90c4a37c96!2sBytom,+Poland!3b1!8m2!3d50.3483816!4d18.9157176!10e5!16zL20vMGp4MXg!3m6!1s0x47112c59104d1ed3:0xe6b2775f901cc168!8m2!3d50.3656361!4d18.850127!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F11cs5n1x9b?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MTIwOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Nicely done
To me, it’s beautiful that Warsaw is restoring its architectural heritage…
It’s such a great pity that rather than doing what Warsaw is doing, London is being relentlessly pumped out to huge international property developers to rape and pillage while running off back overseas with the big profits…. While London and Londoners have to live with the insipid overbearing crap they build…💩💩💩
I'm heritaging so hard
Piękne, chce tak potrafić
Kafe Dostoyevsky?
Did it have those decorations originally and the communists removed them? Or was it built after WW2 without decorations?
The communists destroyed the facades of the “bourgeoisie” and left behind modernist and brutalist decorations.
They did a really good job. It looks incredible!
Noice! Wonder how much it costs, looks amazing, more of this kind of thing.
huge W looks great
US needs to go back to art deco
Hell yeah.
Was there an adjoining building there before that connected through that sealed off archway at the top?
Fucking wars man
I remember reading in a history book that after WWII that there was a consensus among Poles across all ideological spectra to rebuild Warsaw as accurately and faithfully as possible.
Interesting my city does the opposite removes buildings with some character but instead of building something beautiful with color and more character that blends in they put up a grey concrete Shoe box
I love you guys!
Ir became.... beautiful 😯
It's gorgeous. The before was not bad, it had charm, but the after is spectacular.
It is nice, but after watching that one video that talked about old and new building styles, I realize that it's just relatively affordable trimming. Nothing architecturally interesting. Just a big box with small, lined-up windows and generous tolerances.
Needing to be done in Sweden too, but in our style ofc
What the building looked like before BEFORE?
wow, thats so much brighter now… it looks like it can breathe again.
Well that makes me happy!
Thats amazing reconstruction of beuatfilful architecture!
I hate this. They also did this in Budapest. Stop destroying your past. There's beauty in these designs. Not every place has to look like Vienna or Paris smh
Eu4 when you could westernise
As an architect, this is a double-edged sword, actually.
On one hand, you have an architectural "heritage" considered official. On the other, you have a moment in history, in this case Soviet/brutalist architecture, which is also part of history.
There is no restoration in this case, there is only distortion.
Architectural style is a passage through time. It's as if we took all the Art Deco buildings in New York and covered them with Neoclassical architecture, with Greco-Roman elements, under the excuse that it is the nation's heritage style.