Podgorze Reborn

With its troubled past, Podgorze was once a neglected corner of Krakow. Today, the neighbourhood has a renewed vitality, while still remembering its history. Duncan Rhodes pays a visit. Photography by Keven Erickson

Once upon a time in Krakow if you wanted to escape the hectic buzz of the Old Town the solution was simple. You would take a 10- minute jaunt to the ancient Jewish district of Kazimierz, where charismatic bars, klezmer folk music and a friendly crowd converged against a backdrop of crumbling synagogues.

For most of the last decade, Kazimierz was a delightfully shabby zone championed by students, artists and assorted oddballs, offering a pleasant alternative to the hordes of tourists and drinkers running amok on the Rynek (main market square). However, more recently the district’s signature candlelit cafés are being outnumbered by flashy bars and discos, property is being developed for commercial projects, and huge hikes in rent have driven out many of the area’s original residents. Today, those residents – mainly musicians, filmmakers and students – are all moving to Podgorze.

Separated from the rest of the city by the Vistula river, Podgorze was built by the Habsburgs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th century to rival Krakow, and until 1915 flourished as a separate town. Later, during World War II, the heart of the neighbourhood was to be singled out as the site for the Jewish ghetto, the cramped area where the Nazis

imprisoned the city’s Jewish population. Encircled by a 3m-high concrete wall and spreading east from Rynek Podgorski over an area of 20ha, the ghetto marked the darkest and most horrific period of Krakow’s history – the site of forced labour, rationing and unspeakable massacres. Among the few to escape was a young Roman Polanski, whose father cut the barbed wire behind an SS guard tower, hugged him – and then told him to get lost.

An ignominious association for any district to bear, perhaps new life after 1945 would have helped to exorcise the ghosts of Podgorze’s painful past. But no sooner had World War II ended than Poland was crushed underneath the weight of the Iron Curtain, and the area was eerily frozen in time for over 50 years.

Naturally, its horrific past meant that Podgorze was given a wide berth by the vast majority of Krakow’s house hunters. And those who did take up residence tended to be a little eccentric – many artists and performers were the first to come. And the feeling in Krakow was that creating a new lease of life in the neighbourhood was impossible, in fact you’d have to be completely off your rocker to start a business in the district.

At least that’s what people told Wojtek Kulasa when he told them he was moving his hip music venue, Drukarnia Jazz Club, from Kazimierz “po drugiej stronie” (“onto the other side”) of the river.

“Most people from Krakow thought Podgorze was just a place of poor people, petty criminals and hooligans,” he says. “All the culture, such as theatres, opera and cinemas, was in the Old Town. ‘Who is going to come here and have a drink?’ they said. ‘Who is going to see a concert?’ They thought I was mad.”

Nonetheless, Wojtek remained convinced that Krakow’s contemporary culture had to shift to the other side of the river and, against all sage advice, he followed his instincts and moved his club to the south bank of the Vistula in 2007. The impact was immediate. From having no nightlife scene whatsoever, Podgorze could suddenly boast a great riverside venue, capable of hosting rock concerts, jam sessions and regular club nights in its cavernous basement, as well as providing a glorious place to watch the sunset in the evenings.

And once the sawdust settled and the paint had dried, Wojtek discovered to his surprise that it wasn’t just the fringes of society who lived in the area. “Poets, editors, journalists – lots of them are living here because of the cheap rent. But none of them ever said out loud ‘I am living in Podgorze’.”

The success of Drukarnia (1 ul. Nadwislanska, tel: +48 (0)12 656 6560, www.drukarnia-podgorze.pl) gave the green light to other bar and restaurant owners to invest. Within months you could pop next door and tuck into the signature dish of snails and a glass of bubbly at the Spanish-themed Cava café (tel: +48 (0)12 656 7456, www.cafecava.pl), where the young and stylish drink and gossip in front of pastiche art pictures.

Across the road, the charismatic Pod Lwem restaurant (4 ul. Jozefinska) began serving up tasty international cuisine in a former stable. More recently, the über-cool retro bar Miejsce in Kazimierz has jumped on the bandwagon and sprouted a new branch in Podgorze fresh for 2010 (1 ul. Wegierska, tel: +48 783 096 016, www.miejsce.com.pl), a sure sign that the city’s fashion-conscious kids are thinking of heading south – and a move that will soon be made easier by a planned footbridge spanning the Vistula.

But the place most likely to become a focal point in the district is the soon-to-be-renovated Schindler’s Factory (4 Lipowa, www.mhk.pl/oddzialy/fabryka_schindlera). Along with the rest of Podgorze, the enamel factory played a starring role in Steven Spielberg’s epic movie Schindler’s List about the industrialist turned unlikely hero. Until now, apart from occasional exhibitions and concerts, the building has never been given a chance to tell it’s own story.

In recent years, the city’s Historical Museum purchased the building from private owners, and is now on the verge of opening the site as a museum this spring. The administrative building of the factory will be transformed into an interactive, multi-media exhibition space chronicling the Nazi occupation of Krakow from 1939–1945. Monika Bednarek, of the Historical Museum, says: “We want to show the five years of Nazi occupation of Krakow and how the relationships between Poles, Jews and Germans developed. Of course, we will show the terrible events of the ghetto and the concentration camps, but we also want to show everyday life.” Part of the museum’s programme will also focus on Oskar Schindler himself, and his legendary and heroic story.

Anyone walking around Podgorze on a cold day this February will take one look at the snow-covered decaying façades of the grand Austrian mansions and realise that the district’s resurgence is far from complete; but that is in part what lends the area its charm. More importantly, it is an area where the horrors of the past are not forgotten: in Plac Bohaterow Getta, also known as the “Square of the Ghetto Heroes”, you’ll find a permanent open-air installation commemorating the past. Made up of 70 chairs representing the worldly possessions abandoned by Krakow’s Jews before they were sent to the Plaszow or Auschwitz concentration camps, it is a moving tribute and a poignant reminder of the past in Krakow’s new neighbourhood to be.

FOR MORE ON PODGORZE, VISIT WWW.PODGORZE.PL, OR LEADING KRAKOW WEBSITE WWW.CRACOW-LIFE.COM. ALSO HEAD TO THE UNIVERSITY TO PICK UP A FREE STUDENT GUIDEBOOK, KRAKOW MY OWN WAY.

ALSO SEE…

PHARMACY UNDER THE EAGLE

Tadeusz Pankiewicz was a Christian who protested against Nazi rule and refused to leave his pharmacy in Podgorze when the ghetto was created. The building soon became an enclave of resistance, and today is a museum that chronicles life in the area through numerous photos, letters and documents.

18 PLAC BOHATEROW GETTA, TEL: +48 (0)12 656 5625, WWW.MHK.PL

FORT BENEDICT

This impressive Austrian fort is notable for its 16-sided polygon tower. Now renovated, there’s a rumour the building will be opening as a cultural space soon.

LASOTA HILL

POKUSA

Student grub takes on a different meaning if the academics in question are apprentices of Krakow’s School of Gastronomy. Pop into their canteen, Pokusa, to get a taste of haute cuisine on the cheap.

6 UL. ZAMOYSKIEGO

REKAWKA CAFE

A delightfully low-key spot with a literary feel, where coffee aficionados drop in to linger over a cup made from Hawaiian, Kenyan and Mexican beans, and some fine confectionery.

4B UL. BRODZINSKIEGO