The Genius loci Issue in the Revalorization of Post-Military Complexes: Selected Case Studies in Legnica (Poland)

Abstract

Barracks built at the turn of the 20th century and in the 1930s in garrison towns in the Western Borderlands of Poland serve as the focal point of their cultural landscape. Traditions, which grew around these structures during three independent periods (pre-war German times, the totalitarian post-war period and the contemporary free-market economy), form a continuous narrative of how the military contributed to development and helped shape the sense of local identity. Simultaneously, historic barracks complexes are a dissonant heritage due to the complicated history of these lands, known as the Recovered Territories, which includes a change in nationality, exchange of population and the Iron Curtain. After the army was restructured, many of these barracks were decommissioned and repurposed. Some of the adaptations obscured the barracks’ typological differentiators, which diminished their value as archives of cultural and social history. The study described in this paper conducted by the author helped to identify the features that differentiate military installations from other historic architecture and diagnose which of these features must be preserved in order to maintain the genius loci of the barracks complexes, i.e., their scholastic potential and sentimental value. Based on the acquired knowledge, this paper analyzed two adaptations of barracks in Legnica, one from each period of intensified militarism. This analysis resulted in the formulation of recommendations for future restorations of other barracks that still remain in their original form.