Daily phenomena photoblog
Szczecin, (original, German name – Stettin), one of the most beautiful Polish cities, yet one of the least known and most underestimated. What you see at the panoramas below, is the view from the stunning Maritime Museum building located by the Oder river. Click the panoramas to see them bigger – soon you will see more pictures of Stettin and its amazing, mostly post baroque, architecture.
Szczecin panorama – view from the Maritime Museum observation deck
Szczecin panorama – view from the Maritime Museum observation deck
Szczecin panorama – view from the Maritime Museum observation deck
Szczecin panorama – view from the Maritime Museum observation deck
and the beautiful Szczecin Maritime Museum building with the visible observation deck located 53 meters above the ground:
Szczecin Maritime Museum building
Very interesting piece of architecture – more on this building, called “Glass Trap” later.
LOT Polish Airlines Headquaters
Wrocław Cathedral on Ostrów Tumski (Cathedral Island)
When I visit new places, I walk. This time I came back to the city of Wrocław (Breslau) and came across this beautiful old cathedral. Well lit, quiet place with great history.
This beautiful fish mosaic was made in 1969 in communist Poland. Currently it still is in mint condition, can be visited in magnificent Pasztecik diner in Szczecin (western Pomerania). More pictures will follow shortly.
Fish mosaic Pasztecik Szczecin
Spotted somewhere in Poland – the text at the bottom right window shop say – “enter, we are the cheapest – wedding parties, prices negotiable”. Address upon request.
By the way, very interesting architecture – check the balcony. Quite unusual.
cheapest wedding parties venue
One page architectural house plan
In 1927 the world was different – a lot simplier. So was architecture procedures and construction permits. What you see below is something truly astonishing – entire house (in fact, two buildings) architectural plan, along with all required permits – were fitted on single page, smaller than A3! Ok, it was a small, two flat house, somehow not that complicated as the ones being constructed today with lots of complicated installations – but those houses require hundreds of pages of plans and dozens of permits! Imagine one page architectural house plan today – simply unimaginable!
This old German train station was built 1855-1857. Astonishing beauty of this place was brought back to life when in 2010 the refurbishment works started. In 2012 the Wrocław Główny, before known as Breslau Hauptbahnhof, was reopened and personally I think, this is by far the most successful restoration of the railway architecture in Poland ever. Just quick shots below, but believe me – the beauty and attention to detail there is unbelievable.
Wrocław Główny (Breslau Hbf) train station main hall
More pictures below:
Warszawa Centralna is a prime example of great Polish architecture from late seventies of the last century. Main train station in Warsaw, point of critical importance to Polish train network, where most of the main lines meet. The main hall is above the surface of the earth, but the platforms are located underground. Interestingly, the lines go below the earth in shallow tunnel for exactly 2310 meters, connecting all main train stations – very clever system, that does not affect the car traffic above, was built between 1924 and 1933 when it was finally opened.
What you see on the picture below it a train platform restored for the launch of the Euro2012 football championship.
Warszawa Centralna train station platform
Hotel Lord, Okęcie, very close to the airport in Warsaw, Poland. One of the ugliest buildings I have ever seen in my entire life.
Remember the tall building, like the ones seen in Gotham City, I’ve posted few posts before? Good. Here’s little story.
Here is the rumour, conspiracy theory or you name it: sixty-or-so years ago, president of Poland was asked by russian president – what do you want as a post war gift? Tube system, bunch of block houses with few thousands of flats, for the city that was in rubble? Or the tall building, symbol of Russia?
Few thoughts – who cares about the tube? How needs to move around? No, thanks (First line was completed… in 2011. Almost 60 years later). Houses? We’ll build them on our own – 20 years later. So yes – we’ll take the skyscraper.
Fine.
Every single bit of it was brought from Russia. Every stone. All of the builders were from deep Russia – they couldn’t contact with the locals, they had their own food – but they needed to stay somewhere.
So they brought some wood from Siberia, so they could build their own homes – but not all of it. Most of the houses were actually brought from Finland – there were captured by Russia as the post Finnish-Russian war reparations and later they came to Poland as part of the coal-houses exchange deal. Most of those houses ended up in south-west Poland, Silesia region – before the second world war it was a highly industrialised part of Germany. But that’s another story.
The housing estate was built very quickly. It was built as barracks (former death camp barracks) for the builders and Finnish houses for managers – it supposed to last for five years or so. They still serve well.
To the slightly different public.
University of Warsaw students. PhD students. Doctors. Professors. They all live here.
Single rooms for students. Mutual bathroom for 15 rooms on the corridor. Mutual kitchen. Yes, there is running water. Absolutely iconic and amazing place. Close to the centre of the town, very green and very quiet. Really worth a visit.
More pictures below.
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