Polish Landscape Research Articles

Tintin au pays de nulle part ? Deux voyageurs belges dans la Pologne communiste

Proposing Tintin as an emblem of Belgian travelers who visited a communist country, the paper offers an analysis of the representation of Poland in two travel stories from Frenchspeaking Belgium: Pologne 1948 by Max Deauville and Canzona pour l’Europe by Sophie Deroisin. The article demonstrates how two Belgian writers endeavor to assimilate the described reality, whilst struggling with the language barrier. The paper discusses the fact that although both authors visit Poland under communism, politics takes up little space in their works. Instead, they choose to focus on the country’s past, especially the Second World War, as well as on the Polish landscape.

Geoheritage Resources in Polish Landscape Parks as a Basis for Developing a Network of Geoparks

Despite intensive scientific research on geodiversity and geotourism, the development of a network of geoparks in Poland has been slow. There are only two geoparks here. The reasons include difficulties of an organisational nature. The existing network of spatial forms of nature conservation should be used to streamline the process of establishing geoparks. The areas of the potential geoparks partially overlap with the areas of the landscape parks. The study presents a comprehensive quantitative assessment of abiotic nature sites (abiotic nature reserves, abiotic natural phenomena, documentation sites, geosites) occurring in landscape parks (125 in Poland). Parks with the greatest number of such sites and the highest geoheritage value are indicated (10% of the total number). Within these areas, new geoparks could be established and tourism based on geoheritage resources could be developed. In some cases, landscape parks located within the planned geoparks feature a small number of geoheritage sites, which may indicate the occurrence of deficiencies in the system of spatial forms of abiotic nature conservation in Poland.

The Landscape as a Silent Witness of a Fragile Memory in Paweł Pawlikowski’s 2013 Film Ida

This article focuses on Paweł Pawlikowski’s 2013 film Ida, analysing how the formal and aesthetic aspects question silent witnesses about the difficult past using pictures as a useful testifier. In the context of Poland’s national memory, its current political discourse and the Polish-Jewish relations during World War II, Ida offers a significant contribution. The process of scrutinising this difficult past becomes a journey, a troublesome event when a remembrance must be constructed and experienced. The film journey offers a possibility to get back to this period of time and encourages us to pose certain questions: how do sites of memory remain with us through cinematographic or photographic representations? How can we define this physical and mental landscape of the journey as being a fragile memory? Drawing on Carlo Ginzburg’s index paradigm, the author proceeds to reflect upon the traumatic events of the Holocaust in the Polish landscape through two important photographic moments related to cinema.

Protection of Roadside Shrines and Crosses in Poland Against The Background of Historical Events and in Light of Established Legal Acts

Roadside crosses and shrines are a characteristic element of the Polish landscape. Small sacred objects are intertwined with history and the cultural context of Polish countryside and cities, arising from the need of faith, and have manifested piety for generations. Many crosses and shrines were erected as mementos of important national events, uprisings, war skirmishes, independence spurts that took place in the 19th and in the first half of the 20th centuries, commemorating national anniversaries, for instance 1918, anniversaries of Christianization of Poland, jubilees of historic events. They were also built upon old mass graves of victims of bygone epidemics. In the context of historic events, objects of small sacral architecture were met with harassment and repressions. Therefore, after regaining independence legal initiatives were undertaken by the state and the Church to save these objects. Unfortunately, not always did this type of object receive sufficient legal protection or proper appraisal. In documents they are present in the background. That is why ethnographic studies are often the only way to save their memory, and preserve the image of old crosses, statues, and shrines.

“Świdermajer”, the Architecture of Historic Wooden Summer Villas in the Polish Landscape: A Study of Distinctive Features

The article covers the results of the study of a historical wooden holiday architectural ensemble called Świdermajer, located on the outskirts of Warsaw in Poland. The fashion for traveling and resting within natural surroundings emerged in the 19th century, contributing to the popularization of a new model of spending free time. It had an impact on the development of a new type of architecture, including the “Swiss style”, today representing an extremely picturesque European architectural heritage integrated into the landscape. The area of Otwock is one of a very few of such places in Poland, where the entire complexes of suburban wooden holiday buildings from the late 19th and early 20th century have survived. This paper aims to show an overview of a development of the local wooden building trend on the “Otwock Line” within its historical and social background. The main goal of the study focuses on identifying the characteristic features of the architectural wooden local style. As a final outcome of the study, the article presents the method applied for the recording and assessment of historic wooden summer villas. The conducted study confirmed the distinctiveness of the phenomenon represented by cultural values and, at the same time, its strong links with the Alpine style of architecture.

Exhibiting Galicia: Problems of Interpretation and Other Reflections on the Permanent Exhibition at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków

The exhibition “Traces of Memory” presents about 150 present-day large-format colour photographs of the Jewish heritage still to be seen in many different towns in that part of Galicia which is today in Poland. The exhibition is innovative in museological terms. It does not present the Jewish history of Galicia using conventional chronology; nor is it comprehensive. Rather it isdivided into a simple five-part set of ideas intended to help visitors make sense of the complex, conflicting realities relating to Jewish heritage 75 years after the Holocaust: that Polish Galicia is full of the abandoned ruins of the Jewish past; it is also full of surviving fragments of pre-Holocaust times; full of places where the mass atrocities of the Holocaust took place; it is also full of post-war attempts to restore (or to abandon) sites of Jewish significance; and full of individuals, from all walks of life, contributing to a new visibility of Jewish culture in the Polish landscape. But piecing together the present-day evidence into a coherent five-part exhibition, by assigning such socio-cultural meanings to what the photos are deemed to represent, is not a straightforward matter. How “typical” are they as illustrations of one of those five ideas? How far can one generalize on the basis of decontextualised visual evidence - architecturally typical, historically typical, socio-culturally typical? The problem is that a photograph can simultaneously have multiple meanings; and this paper includes numerous examples. Part of that is because of the cultural displacement caused by the Holocaust and its after-effects. Just as a “synagogue” marked on a tourist map may in fact no longer really be a synagogue, so too one strategy of memorialising a devastated Jewish cemetery has often been to turn it into a lapidarium - a collection of surviving tombstones. In other words, when re-presented as heritage, such places may no longer “mean” what they were originally intended to mean. So often the Jewish heritage as presented through photographs is treated as self-evident. But in fact the same place, or the same photo, may mean different things to different people: meaning may thus be a matter of emphasis and interpretation, an ambiguity which is not always made fully explicit.

„Ja, kiedy przyszłam, jeszcze grali, ja, kiedy przyszłam, śpiewał róg” – patriotyzm dnia codziennego w poezji Agnieszki Osieckiej

This study concentrates on different manifestations of patriotism in the life and works of AgnieszkaOsiecka. The concept of „everyday patriotism” relates to Osiecka’s contribution, as a poetand a writer, to Polish culture. Further, this article discusses Osiecka’s local patriotism expressedthrough her affection for Polish landscapes. It also presents Osiecka as a satirist, an author of manyworks performed by well-known cabaret artists.

Fortresses as Specific Areas of Urban Greenery Defining the Uniqueness of the Urban Cultural Landscape: Warsaw Fortress—A Case Study

The term “fortress landscape” is a holistic one which involves coverage and terrain adapted for defensive purposes. The specificity of the historical heritage of the Polish cultural landscape is expressed in a great number of such objects, some of which have been absorbed by its cities. A case in point is the Warsaw Fortress. A significant part of its fortification has survived to this day. Due to its spatial structure, manner of use and condition, the Fortress constitutes a valuable element of Warsaw’s natural system. At the same time, it should be noted that this element is important due to being a tourist attraction and is an example of qualified military tourism. Military tourism is one of the most popular types of modern tourism. Its elements are frequently integrated into the urban green area system. Moreover, due to its specific spatial structure, the Fortress provides a unique element enriching the cultural landscape of the city. In this paper, a historical background of the Warsaw Fortress is analyzed with a special emphasis on its cultural value and public perception. The methods used in the study include a cultural value assessment, the WNET method, a survey questionnaire and both PCA and PCC statistical methods. The analysis showed that the landscape value of the Fortress received 70% of the maximum possible rating in the conducted survey. What is more, the Warsaw Fortress was also evaluated using all the assessment criteria. The study shows that the entry of the fortress elements into the city’s natural system is perceived as being valuable, although it often lacks a specific program. Consequently, the Warsaw Fortress should be subject to landscape protection with a view towards revitalization, along with introducing a recreational program.

Relief as an important factor in determining priority landscapes: a case study on Polish landscape parks

Abstract The practical problems of implementing the Regulation on Landscape Audits (European Landscape Convention, ELC) in Poland are discussed through the topic of landscape relief, on an example of landscape classification of three of Poland’s landscape parks. In the existing landscape typologies, various criteria are proposed, in which relief is usually considered to be one of the leading components. The study was carried out for the purposes of the Landscape Parks Conservation Plans, based on a comparison of the method under the Principles of Landscape Audits and the authors’ method. The results indicate that the landscape types set out in the regulation insuficiently take relief into account, leading to omitting the local specific nature of the terrain. The essential attributes of the terrain in the analysed parks are the morphometry of relief and its genesis. Relief helps to determine the landscape types that are more related to the terrain.

Assessment of websites of Polish landscape parks

The purpose of the article is to evaluate the websites of Polish landscape parks in terms of information (presence and quality) and technical aspects (loading speed, availability, responsiveness) including functional development stages. The study concerned all (125) Polish landscape parks. The research consisted in assessing the websites of landscape parks according to the adopted 37 consolidated criteria which formed the basis for distinguishing 4 stages of functional development of websites. As a result of the study, the hypothesis that Polish landscape parks do not use the full potential of modern information and communication technologies on their websites, was positively verified.

Spatial transformations of the Zwierzyniec garden complex in the context of Polish landscapes of the 17th- and 18th-century residential gardens

Spatial transformations of the Zwierzyniec garden complex in the context of Polish landscapes of the 17th- and 18th-century residential gardens

A Domestic Space: The Central and Eastern Carpathians in the Polish Tourist and Local Lore Discourse, 1918–1939

The article presents various ways of ideologization of the Central (Boyko and Lemko regions) and Eastern (Hutsul region) Carpathians in interwar Poland. After the Polish-Ukrainian War (1918–1919), that part of the Carpathian mountain range was situated in the Second Polish Republic. In contrast to the Tatras, which played the role of Polish national landscape, the Carpathians were alien to Poles in terms of ethnicity and culture. Thus, the Polish authorities, as well as touristic and local lore organizations, sought and largely managed to transform these mountains into a domestic landscape, which was no center of national identity but constituted an important spot on the mental map of the Polish national community, recognized as an undeniable part of Polish statehood. The article shows how the exoticization of the Carpathians, state holidays, and the development of state-funded mass tourism resulted in the increased sense of familiarity between Polish lowlanders and highlanders and, consequently, the symbolic inscription of the Carpathians into the Polish domain and common imagination.

From Auschwitz to Jedwabne: Holocaust memory in post-1989 Polish fiction

ABSTRACT This article looks at how the post-1989 Polish literature becomes a mimesis of memory (Erll and Rigney), arguing it responds to shifts within Polish cultural memory of the Holocaust: from the absence of Auschwitz as a Jewish tragedy, through a wide, national debate about Polish complicity in the Holocaust provoked by Jan. T. Gross’s book about Jedwabne, Neighbours (2000), to the recent trend of re-judaizing the Polish (literary) landscape. It analyzes the themes and modes of representing the Holocaust and Polish–Jewish relations in fictional works by P. Huelle, O. Tokarczuk, T. Słobodzianek, P. Płaziński and S. Twardoch, primarily concerned with memory.

Developing a Framework for the Implementation of Landscape and Greenspace Indicators in Sustainable Urban Planning. Waterfront Landscape Management: Case Studies in Gdańsk, Poznań and Bristol

Urban landscape (UL) management and urban greenspace (UG) delivery require effective planning tools. The aim of the study is to develop a conceptual framework for the implementation of ecological, structural and visual landscape and greenspace indicators (LGI) in spatial development of urban areas. The UL and UG management provisions in Poland are identified at various levels of urban planning (local, municipal and regional). Furthermore, the applicability of the selected set of LGI in the Polish planning system is considered based on the existing planning documents. The quality of UL and UG transformation is discussed in three case studies in Bristol, Gdańsk and Poznań in the broader context of the English and Polish spatial planning systems. Bristol is used as a point of reference for the evaluation of UL and UG management in Poland and for the comparison between English and Polish landscape policies. Based on the conceptual framework and the analysis of the case studies, critical areas of UL and UG management in Poland are identified. The existing planning system often fails to ensure the continuity of landscape structures, and it does not include its preservation and enhancement to a sufficient extent. Therefore, the implementation of the proposed LGI framework could significantly improve the ecological and visual quality, as well as the structural diversity of UL and UG. Moreover, the article concludes by indicating some practical implications of the proposed LGI framework for urban planners, policy makers and other stakeholders in terms of improving the modes of governance for UL and UG management as well as of accounting for human health and well-being.

Współpraca rodziny i szkoły w wychowaniu patriotycznym jako wyraz troski o prawidłowy rozwój postaw społecznych dziecka. Recepcja wniosków z badań dla wychowania patriotycznego

Niniejszy artykuł podjął próbę odpowiedzi na pytanie, jakie cechy psychiczne oraz jakie czynniki społeczne stanowią źródła patriotyzmu. Najpierw został zdefiniowany patriotyzm jako postawa człowieka, który ma pozytywne i zaangażowane nastawienie do własnego narodu, ale ma również nastawienie pozytywne do innych narodów. Badania empiryczne wskazały wiele źródeł patriotyzmu, z których najważniejsze to oddziaływania środowiskowo-społeczne rodziny, szkoły, wspólnoty religijnej, grup rówieśniczych i aktywność własna. Doniosłą rolę odgrywa również religijność człowieka oraz preferowane wartości, szczególnie te, które odnoszą się do dobra wspólnego. Wnioski z tych analiz podkreślają konieczność uwzględniania w wychowaniu patriotycznym dzieci poczucia wspólnoty z grupą oraz poczucia dobra wspólnego, które cenią i o które się troszczą. Nie można też pominąć treści religijnych, bowiem religijność jest mocnym oparciem dla patriotyzmu, z niej wypływa powinność moralna wobec ojczyzny i narodu. Różnice w uwarunkowaniach patriotyzmu u mężczyzn i kobiet pozwalają formułować potrzebę zwracania u chłopców uwagi na współpracę międzyosobową, pochwałę bohaterstwa i odpowiedzialnej pracy dla ojczyzny, natomiast w wychowaniu patriotycznym dziewcząt warto akcentować piękno polskiego krajobrazu, przyrody oraz dzieł kultury i sztuki. We wszystkich tych poczynaniach konieczna jest współpraca rodziców i nauczycieli, gdyż stanowią oni ważne dla dzieci autorytety, od których uczą się postaw społecznych, w tym również postawy patriotycznej.

Wooden Orthodox Church Architecture in A Country Landscape After World War II - In the Area of the Former Eastern Galicia

For hundreds of years, villages and small towns - dominating in the Polish landscape - were built in wood, with dominant monuments crystallizing in the form of iconic buildings. The attachment to the local tradition was prevailing - opposing foreign influences. Foreign influences usually underwent modification and specific “taming” in the existing cultural environment. Among the wooden temples of south-eastern Poland distinguish Greek Catholic churches, which are characterized by a great variety of architectural forms. Their specificity has its genesis in the place of their formation - it is the borderline of the Latin and Byzantine cultural circle. It was also here that the influences of numerous, ethnically diverse regions of Poland, Russia, Slovakia (Upper Hungary), Bukovina, Moldova, etc., were crossed. Forced displacement of the Rusins (Ukrainian) population from her previous places of residence, has condemned to leave and exterminate nearly 300 wooden temples - not counting many ruined villages. Few valuable wooden churches were surrounded by conservation and restored. Originally wooden churches, usually with roofs and walls covered with shingles, topped with intricately wrought iron crosses, were usually located on small hills, surrounded by old linden trees or oaks. They were accompanied by wooden or stone fences, wooden belfries and picturesque gates. The square of the church, some distance from the center of the village, accompanied the daily life of local communities. It was a constant and “homely” element of a rural or small-town landscape. In renovations or in the construction of a few new church buildings at the turn of the 20th and 21st century, new materials were increasingly sought after - especially using steel sheets to cover roofs and walls. Today, thanks to the support of the conservation authorities, the traditional cover is restored to the church. Some of the churches that survived the turmoil of war, today are deprived of care and only the most valuable objects are undergoing renovations. Thanks to joint efforts of Poland and Ukraine, the group of the most valuable surviving wooden orthodox churches was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Beginnings of Landscape Architecture in Poland

The article describes the period from the end of the nineteenth century to the 1950's. It presents the achievements of the pioneers of Polish landscape architecture, associated with various aspects of the design, planning and protection of the landscape, in addition to professional education. In the majority of European countries, the development of landscape architecture as a separate profession is dated to the interbellum period. In Poland there is currently no doubt as to the fact that landscape architecture is an independent professional discipline. However, several decades ago this topic was the subject of spirited discussion among Polish specialists, which took place on the pages of specialist periodicals. The discussions that took place at the time between outstanding garden planners, practitioners, scientists, didactic and popularizes who came from various different fields concerned the profession and the preparation of specialists, in addition to the name itself. One of the pioneers – Zygmunt Hellwig, wrote: "I believe that the shaping of the landscape is an art and science that is currently completely independent, one that has grown equally well from the foundations of horticulture, architecture and a number of similar disciplines, one that can absolutely no longer fit within the framework of the professional preparation and qualifications of an architect-builder."(1935). The landscape architecture profession developed very dynamically. Significant projects, now considered icons, were being developed, e.g. Żelazowa Wola, a monument park dedicated to Chopin or Skaryszewski Park in Warsaw. At horticultural fairs one of the more important sections was garden planning, where individual cities prided themselves in their achievements in the design of public parks. University education started to be provided in this speciality. Franciszek Krzywda-Polkowski, who had obtained an education in architecture, was the first to introduce landscape architecture to a university curriculum and organised and supervised the Landscape Architecture and Park Science Division at the University of Life Sciences starting from 1928. He also taught at the Warsaw University of Technology. His diploma candidates, Alina Scholtz and Gerard Ciołek, made significant contributions to the development of landscape architecture in Poland. A. Scholtz, an outstanding designer, became one of the founding members of the International Federation of Landscape Architecture (IFLA) in 1948. G. Ciołek was the creator of the Polish school of the revalorisation of historical garden layouts. His comprehensive scientific works on the history of garden design had a pioneering character. He is the author of the fundamental work Ogrody polskie (1954).

DENDROFLORA OF ROADSIDE SACRAL OBJECTS IN THE TRZYDNIK DUŻY COMMUNE (LUBLIN VOIVODESHIP)

Among numerous elements of the Polish landscape, especially noteworthy are the roadside sacral objects. They are a testimony to national and local identity, and express centuries-old religious values. What is more, roadside crosses and shrines, surrounded by trees and shrubs, accentuate the space with exceptional decorative and cultural value. The presence of vegetation enriches the compositional value of these objects, complements their spatial structure, and highlights the aesthetic value. This paper presents the results of a study of regarding roadside sacral objects, carried out in the Trzydnik Duży Commune, Lublin Voivodeship. The study was performed as an inventory, enabling us to determine the species composition, health condition, and age of the dendroflora accompanying the roadside sacral objects. Within the studied area 73 roadside sacral objects were inventoried. It was found that 53 of them were surrounded by trees and shrubs that represent 42 species. The most common include limes, lilacs, and white cedars. Health condition of the dendroflora is varied, however 78 % of the examined trees and shrubs are of very good or good health condition.

Deconstructing the Topos of Poland as a Jewish Necropolis in Texts by Israeli Authors of the Third PostHolocaust Generation

The paper aims at recognizing and describing the ways of deconstructing the topos of Poland as a Jewish necropolis, a process that in the last decade appears more and more often in the works of Israeli authors of the third generation after the Shoah. The generation concept – as I argue – can serve here as a useful tool for understanding the shift which occurred in the specific national context of Israeli Holocaust discourse and strongly influenced the image of Poland in Israeli literature and culture. Poland depicted as a Jewish necropolis has become one of the central motifs present in Israeli literary as well as the artistic canon of Shoah representations. As the central space where the Shoah occurred, Poland was obviously perceived as a land marked by death and formed exclusively by the experience of the Holocaust. However, in the aftermath of two major shifts that have occurred in the last decades: a meaningful change in the Israeli Holocaust discourse and the new reality of Poland after 1989, and also as a consequence of the growing time distance separating yet another generation from the events themselves, numerous authors born in Israel mostly in the 1970s and in the 1980s began approaching the above-mentioned motif critically. This tendency, one of the few typical for the third generation, is demonstrated either through the motif ’s deconstruction and subversive usage or, more radically, by employing the genre of alternate history and changing the place’s identity (e.g. Tel Aviv by Yair Chasdiel). The topos of Poland as a necropolis has therefore been turned into a part – or even a starting point – of the reflection on collective memory patterns (e.g. Kompot. The Polish-Israeli Comic Book), stereotypes (e.g. Bat Yam by Yael Ronen), and on the authors’ own roots and identity (e.g. The Property by Rutu Modan). By analyzing the abovementioned texts, I will explore the process of constant interaction occurring between collective and the individual memory, between the Israeli national perspective and Polish landscapes, between an author and space and, finally – between the category of the third generation and its representatives themselves.

Garden Festivals in Bolestraszyce

In the previous year, the 7th Garden Festival in Bolestraszyce was already held. It is an annual event that brings together Polish garden enthusiasts and creators, teachers and young landscape architecture adepts, and even primary school representatives. Festivals have been organized since 2011 by the Arboretum and the Department of Physiography in Bolestraszyce, near Przemyśl. It has been initiated thanks to the funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The festival is surrounded by the substantive care of the Landscape Architecture Association, the Association of Polish Landscape Architects, the Polish Nurserymen Association and the Polish Dendrological Society. Show gardens are an unusual variety of gardens – they serve to present the latest trends in the art of space arrangement and present, popularize new plant varieties. In recent years, they have also gained a wider educational function, often referring to environmental problems or various socio-cultural issues.