What’s up with these gnomes in Wroclaw?
When you walk around Wrocław, Poland; keep your eye on not only for your surroundings, but also the street level. You’ll run into them once or twice on the street, and say ‘what a cute little statues!’. And one more around the corner, one more on the square, and one more in front of the university…. and then you’ll think ‘something’s going on here’. You’r right; Wroclaw is a city of little people, krasnale in local language; 180 of them and counting.
Why Gnomes?
It started as a political movement ‘Orange Alternative’. A gnome or a dwarf was the symbol of this moment and the first one was placed on Świdnicka Street where the group’s meeting point. As the movement gained popularity, gnomes became linked with the Orange Alternative and Wrocław, though they soon began appearing in other major Polish cities as well. After the movement is over, the figures, which are smaller than the Orange Alternative monument on Świdnicka Street, were placed in different parts of the city. The first five: designed by Tomasz Moczek, a graduate of The Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, were placed in August 2005. These were the Fencer near the University of Wrocław, the Butcher in Stare Jatki arcade, two Sisyphuses on Świdnicka Street and the Odra-Washer-Dwarf, near Piaskowy Bridge.
If you want to locate the gnomes around the city, you can visit http://krasnale.pl/en/.
#Disclosure: I was a guest of StayPoland Wroclaw walking tour. However all the opinions are my own, not theirs.
I like cities that you can see differently. Getting to know Wroclaw by following gnomes is a great alternative to a simple sightseeing!
I can’t believe I wrote a similar post just two days ago 😉 what a coincidence 😉
hahaha really? I need to check it out! 🙂 I loved these gnomes! Professor was my favourite one. 🙂
they are just the cutest! and so many more appeared since I was in Wrocław last time back in 2010! I’m planning a weekend trip there just to find all the gnomes! 😀
I’m heading to Wroclaw on Tuesday. Been there a few times before, but never paid too much attention to gnomes. Actually, I guess I’ve never seen them. This time I’m going to find them :)!
I love quirky art like this. It gives an extra dimension to a city. In fact it reminds me of my home town Melbourne and its random artworks scattered around the city.
Really a fun as well as interesting post. If you are interested in even more dwarfs there is park full of dwarfs made of stone next to Mirabell Palace in Salzburg, Austria.
Really? Never heard of it. One more thing to look up when I visit Austria! Thanks for the tip Andreas! 🙂