I was very impressed by these observations, because, as we know from Gdansk or Bielsko, for example, even after the exchange of the entire population, cultural genes in cities nevertheless pass quite smoothly from generation to generation, partly ignoring the gigantic change that is the nationality of the urban organism. And so Danzigers are quite Hanseatic, and in Bielsko the Evangelical entrepreneurial gene is doing well, although instead of German—those endowed with it today speak Polish. Thus, modern Wroclaw as much as possible inherits from that super-important German city a lot of its features, values and atmosphere. And this, watered down with Lviv sauce, seasoned with an explosive mix of newcomers from the four corners of the world, surrounded by the amazing, mysterious Lower Silesia, must be a real firecracker.
Wrocław's Manhattan is a bit like the Silesian Cornucopia, biting into the city's skyline (designed by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak)
© Wroclaw City Hall
Well, so—it's a firecracker. Today's Wroclaw is a metropolis of one million people, a city definitely pushing its way into the „Polish box,” i.e. having ambitions for a medal spot, competing with today's Krakow and Tricity for who is better. Economically powerful, with its Bielany district, rows of large factories and logistics centers. Young in spirit—because societies are like people, if in one body, they age quickly, and this society has changed bodies, so from the perspective of the evolution of urban communities, it is very young, fresh, dynamic. It is no coincidence that it was in Breslau during the commune that the dwarves invented by „Major” Frydrych began to fight the communists. A sense of humor, creativity, some kind of sparkle—these are Wroclaw competencies, Wroclaw thrusters.
When I was in college, I had a lot of pals and buddies from PeWro, Wroclaw University of Technology. But what great people they were from that Wroclaw. I remember how in the 90s Wroclaw distanced other Polish cities with this very positive energy, creative vitality, universally felt „good Pia-Rem”.
A representative of new Wroclaw architecture, the OVO complex with the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel—conceptual design by Gottesman Szmelcman Architecture studio
© Wroclaw City Hall
Wroclaw is also certainly for the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Gucwiński and the famous Wroclaw Zoo, shown for years on cult TV shows. This memory, clear to everyone in their 40s today, dovetails beautifully with what is new in the Wroclaw zoo today—I mean the outstanding Afrykarium, simply something wonderful. And if I mention the Afrykarium, I must mention the new most important mascot of Wroclaw today, which has become the manatees inhabiting the local pools.
That's right, the zoo. Few people know that the Wroclaw zoo is in some respects the third in the world (the most animal species presented). And when I think „Wroclaw zoo,” I am immediately reminded of Wroclaw from the 1990s, Wroclaw just after communism. I remember the first time I went to this zoo, by train, which dragged mercilessly for a long time. I got off at the then dingy train station, which is fortunately beautiful again today. At that time I ate my first ever knuckles and pita, walked the streets as if taken alive from a very scenographically good contemporary TV series „Big Water.” The Wroclaw of the early 1990s was, like the rest of Poland, a grayish universe of old falling plaster, but this Wroclaw maze was somehow completely different, and at the time I still didn't know why.
The ship Wroclaw: the city, the water, the quality of life, the real Hydropolis
© City Hall of Wroclaw
And I began my adventure with this Wroclaw, very unusual, and with this Lower Silesia, with which I was later bound for life already, I think, by my professional life. But before I returned to Lower Silesia years later to create two more of its strategies, to come up with one of the best ideas of my life—the „Mysterious Lower Silesia” brand—I was discovering these sites bit by bit on my own, unknowingly at first communing with Karkonosze, the Spirit of the Mountains, Liczyrzepa and other Lower Silesian mysteries—climates—spirits—legends.
