Centralny Square

To this day, the Centralny Square is the best recognised location in this district of Kraków. Together with the buildings that surround it, the square forms a consistent, well-composed whole, even though the design of Tadeusz Ptaszycki, the main architect of Nowa Huta, has never been carried out in full.

The pentagonal square with five broad arteries radiating from it was completed in 1952-1955. It is surrounded by residential estates designed by Janusz Ingarden, which received simple names: A, B, C, and D. The architecture - much like that in all developments of Polish socialist realism - makes reference to the architecture of the Renaissance and the baroque. The development of the southern side of the square was never completed. A theatre and a cultural centre were to be built there. Nor was the town hall building of Nowa Huta ever built. It was to take over the far end of aleja Róż (Rose Avenue) leading from the Centralny Square north. Both these ideas were removed from the master plans after 1956.

A precious element that brings back the memories of the days of the Heros of Socialist Work are the unchanged interiors of some establishments in the Centralny Square. They include the Cepelia shop and the Skarbnica bookshop, both being a good place to visit if you are looking for the climate of Nowa Huta of the 1950s and 1960s. We are also sure to be transported in a journey through time if we visit the Stylowa restaurant in aleja Róż, which is one of the oldest restaurants still operating in the district. Opened on 22nd July 1956, it initially operated as a café. Even though today this may be hard to believe, it used to be the most representative establishment in Nowa Huta.