A walk around Skawina on 9 November 2010. Skawina is a town in southern Poland with around 25,000 inhabitants. The town is located on the Skawinka river, a short bus ride away from Kraków. It has a very nice central market square and is surrounded by pleasant hills, especially to the south. In the late 13th century, three villages existed here: Babice Nowe, Babice Stare and Pisary. They belonged to the Tyniec Benedictine Abbey. In the Middle Ages, the Skawinka marked for a while the boundary between Silesia and Lesser Poland, which resulted in construction of a defensive position, which protected the city of Kraków from the south. On 22 May 1364, King Kazimierz Wielki granted Magdeburg rights to Skawina, and a few years later, the parish church of Holy Spirit was funded here. The town had a defensive wall and a castle. Like most towns at that time, Skawina burned in a fire, but the town was quickly rebuilt and enjoyed the prosperity of the Polish Golden Age. Good times ended in the Swedish invasion of Poland, when Swedish and Transilvanian armies destroyed Skawina, reducing its population by 50%. After the Partitions of Poland, Skawina became part of Austrian province of Galicia (1772). The town remained poor until the second half of the 19th century, when Skawina became a railroad hub, with three lines, to Kraków, Sucha Beskidzka, and Oświęcim. A brewery was built and new businesses were opened. On 6 September 1939, first Wehrmacht troops entered the town, and German occupation lasted until 23 January 1945. The following Communist government decided that Skawina would become a center of heavy industry. In 1954, the Skawina Aluminum Smelter (Huta Aluminium Skawina) was opened, and in 1961, Skawina Power Plant (Elektrownia Skawina) began operating. The smelter was closed in 1981, due to widespread environmental pollution which it caused. The development of industry resulted in influx of new residents, and construction of several blocks of flats in new districts which you can see in this film. https://youtube/watch?v=Db5wgI7pvqA
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 13:10:00 +0000
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