It is hard to imagine Krakow without the Vistula River. One of the well-known sports clubs took its name from the river here, its Latin name is used by a Krakow clothing brand, the undersized bend of the Vistula is one of the most frequently depicted views of Krakow. Comparing the Vistula metropolis to many other riverside cities, such as Prague, Wrocław or Dresden, however, one gets the impression that Krakow developed as a city next to the river rather than on it.
By the end of the 20th century, few impressive public buildings had been built along the Vistula River, and most of the historic districts, such as Dębniki or Zwierzyniec, were situated to the Vistula by the backs of tenement houses (cut off from the river by flood walls several meters high) or industrial areas. Bridges connecting the river banks are also not very numerous. Despite its scenic qualities, the Vistula has long been treated as a barrier separating neighboring districts rather than the urban spine of Krakow, and there were few points of contact between urban life and the river.
One reason for this situation is the transformation of the city's river network over the past two hundred years. Since the 13th century, the main riverbed was the Old Vistula, flowing between Krakow and Kazimierz, then located on an island. It was across it that the only fixed bridge - the Royal Bridge - of the medieval and modern city was thrown. The Vistula's two riverbeds, its tributaries and the canals, mills, ponds and moats fed by the river's waters were an important part of Krakow's landscape, providing defensive qualities, water supply, convenient transportation of goods and powering the mill wheels of numerous workshops. Much of this water network has disappeared. During regulatory work carried out since the 19th century, the Old Vistula was backfilled and the mouth of the Ore River was diverted to a canal by the Norbertine Monastery. It is also worth noting that the Vistula is a foothill river, threatening the city with frequent floods.
A bend in the Vistula near Wawel Castle, on the left, barges moored at the quay, a parking lot for coaches and the Sheraton Hotel
photo: Pawel Halat
boulevards, or dreams of power
A remnant of the economic importance of the Vistula River are numerous post-industrial areas. On both sides were located the city's first power plants (Podgórska and Krakowska in Kazimierz), a gasworks, the Baruch mills in Podgórze (replaced after the war by the Vistula factory), a slaughterhouse in Grzegórzki, later also the Zieleniewski Plant in that district and numerous factories in Zabłocie. The most impressive reminder of Krakow's economic ambitions of the early 20th century, however, are the magnificent boulevards built between 1907 and 1913 - a system of retaining walls, slipways, loading docks and harbors. They were intended to be an element of the city's flood protection, and at the same time a part of the Danube-Oder-Vistula-Dniester canal, one of the most ambitious projects of the declining Habsburg monarchy, which also assumed the construction of a large river port and shipyard in the vicinity of Krakow. It is noteworthy that the city was involved in this government investment from the beginning - not only providing land, but also taking care of the architectural qualities of the investment, so that today Krakow has one of the most impressive complexes of hydrotechnical buildings in Poland. The imperial plans were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, and their echoes are the ideas, reheated every dozen years or so, to build the so-called relief canal, which would provide flood protection for the city and allow the development of cargo shipping.
The harbor cooling tower as seen from Grzegórzki
photo: Paweł Hałat
Facing the Vistula River
The importance of the river and riverside areas and their new role in the changing social and economicrealities began to be recognized in the 1990s, and the location of the "Manggha" Museum of Japanese Art and Technology right on the Vistula River can be considered one of the turning points. Kazimierz, located on the Vistula River, also began to revive (the renewal of Podgórze was not yet thought of at the time), and industrial plants began to move out from the Vistula after the economic transformation, freeing up attractive land for investment. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the discussion about the role of the river in Cracow was dominated by the slogan of "turning the city with its front to the Vistula," repeated by city officials, the media and urban activists. At the same time, it was assumed that objects of metropolitan importance should be located on the Vistula River - according to the spirit of the time, these were to be new icons of Krakow. The largest of these is the ICE Congress Center, the body of which opens onto the Vistula with a huge glazing.
Father Laetus Bernatek footbridge connecting Podgórze with Kazimierz district
photo: Paweł Hałat
Another idea to revitalize the Vistula was to build pedestrian and bicycle bridges, which began with a crossing between Kazimierz and the center of Podgórze, on the site of the first bridge between Krakow and the then separate city of Podgórze, of which stone abutments remain. Next year we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Bernatek Footbridge (for this is how Cracovians have tamed the slightly pompous name of the Father Laetus Bernatek Footbridge), which was initially controversial in terms of its appearance or its desirability. Today, after nearly a decade, it can be said that residents and visitors have voted for it with their feet.
great privatization
The value of the river and the Vistula River area was quickly recognized by business. Investments in neglected Vistula riverfront areas fit the narrative of revitalization, densification and turning the city with its front to the river. Long unprotected by planning, these areas were a gluttonous morsel for investors, and this "front", more often than not a valuable addition, turned out to be a ruthless exploitation of the qualities of riverside neighborhoods. The most rapid changes involved the most recognizable part of the boulevards - the areas in the bend of the Vistula near Wawel Castle. One of the first - and still most controversial - developments was the Sheraton Hotel, built on the site of a former brewery, from which the corner with a water level gauge and concrete screen facade, referring to the historic building, were left.
vistula neighborhoods
The transformations that have taken place in the historic Podgórze district are best appreciated. Connected to Kazimierz by a pedestrian and bicycle bridge, it quickly became a fashionable district among Cracovians and tourists. Complemented by new residential buildings with good architecture and lively, service-oriented ground-floors, as well as the architecturally superb Kantor Museum building, it is today the best part of the Vistula River districts.
The foothill boulevards overlook Kazimierz - a district that, despite massive transformations, is still largely cut off from the Vistula by the walls of the once industrial, now mainly administrative buildings of the power plant (now Tauron) and gasworks. Although the first revitalization plans for Kazimierz from the end of the 20th century called for opening these quarters to the Vistula, they remain fenced enclaves. The first apartment buildings have already sprung up behind the fences of the former municipal power plant site, and an administrative building and... a multi-level parking lot have sprung up right on the Vistula.
Tauron's multi-level parking lot in Kazimierz district
photo: Paweł Hałat
In the eastern part of the city center, in Grzegórzki and Zabłocie, areas abandoned by industry are being turned into residential neighborhoods. In the case of rapidly gentrifying Zabłocie, the fame of Schindler's Factory was an incentive. Subsequent apartment developments, making little reference to the neighborhood's industrial heritage (though fortunately fitting into the existing street grid), quickly drove independent cultural initiatives out of the neighborhood, and Zabłocie is gradually turning into a sleeker version of a developer's estate.
The former shipyard in Zabłocie
photo: Paweł Hałat
Grzegórzki was even less fortunate, where a monoculture of housing with banal architecture was created on the land left behind by the huge Zieleniewski Plant, and nothing remains of the earlier projects, which assumed partial preservation of the impressive halls. The largest building, standing just behind the Vistula embankment, was erected on an area provided in the local plan for public greenery. In this residential setting, the construction of another large-scale public project - the Music Center - is planned.
Forum - the largest advertising rack
A special case is the area of the former Forum Hotel. Ideas to build a large housing development, proposed by its new owner, were one of the impetuses for passing the local plan for the boulevard. Although the hotel is not protected in any way, the plan's provisions have also blocked (at least for the time being) the development of a housing development. The Forum has become the largest advertising rack in the city, but also one of the most interesting examples of spontaneous development of a modernist building. The hotel's ground floor is home to a trendy pub combo, stores, services, a sauna and spa; it hosts lectures and concerts. Perhaps the biggest, and poorly publicized, problem is that along with the hotel, an extensive portion of the upper level of the neighborhood's boulevards has been privatized. For the time being, the area is leased to amusement park riders, but it is possible that in a few years Krakow residents will be in for an unpleasant surprise, as the Local Development Plan allows for development of the area.
The Forum Hotel - Krakow's largest advertising rack
photo: Pawel Halat
water combos
A peculiar kind of privatization is also taking place on the river itself, and its cause is a succession of barges and vessels floating, or rather floating by the shore, mainly with restaurant, bar and hotel functions. Shipowners are particularly fond of the Vistula near Wawel Castle, where restaurant barges appeared more than twenty years ago. Since then, however, they have grown into veritable combinations on the water. The latest installment of this mess is the huge barge Batory, which is moored under Wawel Castle itself.
barges under Wawel Castle
photo: Paweł Hałat
On the Vistula or next to it?
So is modern Krakow a city on the Vistula or next to it? It's difficult to give a straightforward answer. The boulevards in recent decades have become one of the most popular places to spend time in Krakow, and the Board of Urban Greenery is gradually renovating some of their sections (after years of waiting, we even lived to see lighting in their downtown part). However, the new investments and neighborhoods being built in the vicinity of the Vistula River rather continue the pattern of a city next to the river, so it is in vain to look in them for solutions known from modern riverside districts.
The debate about the importance of the Vistula in the city has been dominated by convenient for the authorities and developers, conceptually capacious slogans of "revitalizing" and "turning the city with its front to the river." There has never been an architectural concept, or even a functional concept for the entire boulevards or a more significant part of them. Becoming an increasingly important element of the city's structure, they are one of the playing fields for the interests of various pressure groups - developers, shipowners and tourism entrepreneurs, officials, city and district authorities, associations or informal groups. The river has even become one of the topics of the local government campaign - big plans for riverside investments were floated by one of the candidates for the post of mayor.
Gymnastics on the Podgórze boulevards, Pilsudski Bridge in the background
photo: Paweł Hałat
monument, beach and balloon
Hence the budding ideas for developing individual pieces of the boulevards. One of the most talked-about stories is the years-long epic of building a monument to the Home Army at the foot of Wawel Castle, protested by residents and activists, with repeated consultations and pressure from right-wing or veteran circles. On the other side of the Vistula, meanwhile, a private (EU-supported) complex with a beach, a barge swimming pool and a gastronomic pavilion of dubious beauty has ended its history. It was this pavilion and the refusal to encroach on the dyke that sparked the conflict. The beach disappeared... instead, a viewing balloon and three barges with apartments for rent appeared. The pavilion obstructed the view; the balloon and barges - apparently not.
A viewing balloon and three barges with apartments for rent by the Forum Hotel
photo: Pawel Halat
positive changes
However, there are also positive examples, such as in Zablocie, where residents of the emerging neighborhood won a park on an area used for years as a wild parking lot. Designed using the participatory method in the area of a former train station, it bears the notable name "Vistula" and is waiting to be enlarged and integrated with the riverbank. A similar story happened on the other side of the Vistula, where, thanks to the efforts of residents, among others, a large park will be built on post-military land. Civic activism is thus becoming one of the most important drivers of positive change on the Vistula.
