Best Things to Do:
The tour of Krakow can be completed with a visit (even a short one, perhaps by tram) to the industrial district of Nowa Huta, built immediately after World War II. Nowa Huta represents the model of a communist city: huge boulevards, many green spaces, and large buildings in typical socialist style. If you have read 1984 by George Orwell, you will notice that this would be the ideal backdrop for the totalitarian society described in the book.
A steel mill, 40,000 workers, many pollutants
When Nowa Huta (New Steelworks in Polish) was constructed, the goal of the communist authorities was to create a worker settlement on the outskirts of the city, so that the ideals of the working class would oppose those of the Krakow society, considered too conservative and clerical.
The vast working-class suburb emerged around the steel mill that provides 50% of Poland's total steel production, employing about 40,000 workers who lived here with their families. The steel mill alone was five times the size of Krakow's historic center. Over the years, toxic gases and pollutants from the steel mill have relentlessly affected Krakow and its surroundings. Fortunately, today the authorities are addressing the damage caused by rampant industrialization during the communist regime.
Something beautiful to see in Nowa Huta too
In the district stands the monumental church of Saint Mother Queen of Poland, shaped like an ark, and for this reason also called Arka Pana (Ark of the Lord). The first stone of this church comes from the tomb of Peter and was laid by Karol Wojtyła in 1965, but it was not until 1977 that the district saw its dream realized. The construction of the church was a point of contention between workers and the communist authorities: Nowa Huta was designed to not host any sacred buildings. Since then, the district became a center of the movement against the regime.
If you have some time available, you can head to Mogila, in the southeastern outskirts, where you will find the beautiful Cistercian Monastic Complex (1222) consisting of the church and the monastery with a large garden. Across the street, you can also admire another church, that of Saint Bartholomew, the oldest wooden church in Poland (15th century).