Wrocław: the river is everywhere

“The river is everywhere.” 

 - Hermann Hesse

Pstrąże: the city that always sleeps

From my English blog PolsKaaaH:   A story on a forgotten city

A little girls' shoe, a toy tank and some plastic cups are the only silent reminders of the fact that people actually used to live here. In the midst of crumbled walls and shattered glass they lie still on the ground, as time around them passed by. More than 20 years of abandonment turned the city of Pstrąże into a ghost town where nature took over. In the last two decades the city became one of the most interesting places in Lower-Silesia for urban explorers.

From the moment of entering the remains of the city, the silence is overwhelming. Besides some birds and the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, there's nothing else. The eight-story apartment blocks are the first thing you see and the idea that thousands of persons used to live here takes your breath away. The buildings are falling apart, but it's still fairly safe to enter them, as long as you're being careful. Trees are growing in the empty rooms and even on top of the apartment blocks.

From 1945 till 1992 the city was occupied by Soviet soldiers, who lived in this isolated city with their wives and kids. Pstrąże used to have a population of approximately 20.000 inhabitants and was quite.... Read more