I spent the first week of 2012 in Wrocław, the city where I was born and where I lived the first 11 years of my life. There is a full gallery (see link at the end of this blog entry), but here I chose some images fro my wanderings around the city.
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The death of Michael Jackson apparently touched people everywhere:
The next 10 pictures are from WrocÅ‚aw’s main art museum. Even though it is walking distance from my sister’s apartment, I had never visited it, and she had not been there for many years. So, we went on Friday and we did not regret it.
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The main hall of the museum:
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On the ground floor, there are sculptures, mainly sarcophaguses from around 1000 years ago. Most of them were originally in churches around the city, but were taken to the museum to better preserve them:
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On the second, third and fourth floors there is the usual mix of religious and portrait paintings, pretty boring actually, except perhaps this painting which shows that people in the old days were not as hung up about breastfeeding in public as they are today in some countries:
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The real gem of the museum is the top, 5th, floor, which has art from the 1960s through today. It was a real revelation:
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Faces:
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Man with tyre, by Magdalena Abankowicz:
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Karl is there too:
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Face, by Anna Szapocznikow:
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Holocaust-inspired work, by Anna Szapocznikow:
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Magdalena Abankowicz room:
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Faceless communist men:
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A work by one of the most celebrated Polish artists from the post-war era, Władysław Hasior:
After seeing all this modern art, I walked to one of the many churches, St. Wojciech (Saint Adelbert of Prague). It was supposed to have a creepy crypt, but I found no way of accessing it. Nonetheless, the church turned out to be rather interesting.
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Like most Polish churches, this one venerates the Virgin Mary:
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The nativity scene was modern, quite surprising:
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In fact, it was almost abstract:
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Memorial plaque for the victims of the Armenian genocide in Turkey in 1915:
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I am not sure who this guy is, I just liked the light falling on him:
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I continued my walk across Ostrów Tumski and crossed one of river Odra’s tributaries on the Piaskowy Bridge. By now the sun had set, and the light was magic:
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I walked along the Odra and enjoyed the view of Wrocław University, where my sister studied back in the 1960s:
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Another view of the university:
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There is a lot of interesting history in Wrocław. This plaque commemorates a clandestine radio station which was broadcasting during the martial law years 1981-1989:
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This plaque commemorates Polish support for the Hungarian revolution in 1956:
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WrocÅ‚aw’s city hall dates back to the 14 century. This is the main hall on the ground floor:
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Typical architecture from the 19th century:
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Feniks (Phoenix) is an old department store. It was there during communist times, and today it is still there, somewhat old and quirky:
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Finally, this is my brother-in-law on his 74th birthday on January 5th, receiving yet another call:
More Poland pictures are here.
OK, I checked airfare and hotel rates for Christmas 2012 – seem pretty reasonable, even if from Oklahoma City. So are auto rentals. Now to do some homework. Great photos, especially the nativity scenes. My wife’s family is all from Poland. Her mom is fluent in Polish and various Russian, but not so my wife – no problem I imagine. Thanks much for posting – it got our interest in a trip up again. BTW a friend referred me to Sobieski vodka, about $10/liter USD. It is supposed to be some much higher-priced vodka packaged in another bottle via a Bruce Willis venture. Pretty good, anyway.
Ken
Comment by Ken Carney — 8 January 2012 @ 03:08
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This plaque commemorates Polish support for the Hungarian revolution in 1956:
Polak – wÄ™gier. dwa bratanki. i do szabli. i do szklanki…
great fotos
cheers Jota O
Comment by Jota O — 8 January 2012 @ 17:26