I was intrigued to see more of Nowa Huta, and saw a tour advertised online for the steel works and shelter.
I arrived a bit early, so had a wander round the adjacent park; this was pleasantly busy, and it was a nice walk around the lake.
The tour turned out to be a really interesting afternoon; there were only of us on the tour, and the guide was excellent.
We started in the “management building”; this was one of a pair of (apparently) identical buildings at the entrance to the site, the other being the “social” building. The management building is no longer used, apart from as a film set (the guide showed us clips from several of the films that’d been shot there). It looked like lots of it was pretty much unchanged, either from the 50s when it was built, or from a some rennovations in the 90s (“like Polish IKEA”, as the guide put it).
The fittings in the management building were much more luxurious; the courtyard was cobbled, in contrast to the workers’ tarmac one. As the guide put it, “under communism some people are more equal than others”. As the management building had some of the most luxurious rooms in Krakow, it’d been used for lots of conferences (“Com Con – communist, not comic”), and had welcomed a number of leaders from both sides of the iron curtain.
We started off in the entrance hall, and then headed up to the main conference room. This had a very impressive chandelier:
Then it was up an impressive spiral staircase to the next floor. The handrail was very low; in the (still used) social building they’ve added a net so people don’t fall off
Then we headed to the balcony of the conference room, and then the plant director’s office. The ante-room of this had been 90’s ed, but the rest was pretty much original
Then, after going to the director’s “secret” room behind the desk, where he could sleep if necessary, we headed to the production manager’s office. This was less fancy:
Then it was into the switchboard room. The guide played us a tape from the 90s they’d found of someone complaining about things being stollen from the site. They’d dated it to post-communism, because the name of the police had changed.
The switchboard didn’t really work – it just lit up, as it’d been used in a film.
Then it was down into the basement, to take the tunnel between the two buildings; this was part of the shelter (I think), but wasn’t secret; apparently it was used to avoid the weather.
Then it was into the shelter proper:
It sounded like the shelter was for if there were chemical incidents, or war. The doors were all gas proof. We entered via the main entrance, which would’ve been used when there wasn’t an incident. We were also shown the decontamination entrance, and one of the (several) emergency exits.
The control rooms made up most of the bunker
We got a demo of the emergency air filtration system, which was powered by a modified push bike
Then it was back to the surface. It was an excellent tour.
I’d got a bit of time to kill before my sleeper to Gdansk, so had a wander round the centre and then wandered over to the hostel to collect my bag
I’ve enjoyed Krakow. It’s been an interesting mix of old and new.
Currently waiting at the station for my train, which is due in about 40 minutes. I’m hoping I get a decent night’s sleep on this one.