Tour of Nowa Huta

The third day of touring consisted of going to see Nowa Huta (means New Steelworks). Some describe it as a "Socialist-Realist paradise," so it was a part of Krakow built over some ancient villages by the Communists meant to destroy the conservative upper class of Krakow. The architects chose to build a steelworks even though there was no naturally occurring steel in the area because the Communists thought the way to have a utopia was to have a huge working class. So when we went there, it didn't look too special, but the history and reasons for building the section of the town we very interesting.
But before we got the the town, we stopped at the Wanda Mound which is named after a Polish princess who is said to have killed herself rather than marry a German prince. Her body was found in the river and the locals are said to have felt so sorry for her that they built a mound in her honor. That's just a legend though because there is evidence that the mound was actually built by the Celtics long ago and was used for astronomical purposes. I was the only one who was able to the walk to the very top because the rest of the girls I was with were deterred by how slippery the mound was. At the top, there was just a statue that had an eagle and a plaque that said "Wanda."
Next we made it to the main square of Nowa Huta which is now named after Ronald Reagan since many people contribute the fall of communism to him. In the center was a statue of Lenin, but I guess after the fall of communism the statue was sold to a wealthy Swedish man who put an earing in the statue and gave it a Mohawk. What was really interesting about the square was that it could be closed off in case of invasion and that at the top of the buildings were small windows that gun men could peak out of. It's all interesting hearing about what times were like during communism.
We finally had a tour of a few churches in the area. The one that impressed me most was the Lord's Arc church that was built in the shape of a wooden arc. It was all very symbolic saying that just like Noah floated in a bad time, so will the people of Poland. They also didn't have heavy machinery during this time so they had to build the large church manually. The outside is covered in river stones collected by the people of the city. The inside has a blue Italian marble floor to symbolize water and a figure of Jesus that is massive and looks as though it is being pulled towards heaven. The figure is a little controversial because of how tortured it looks. After that church we finished our day by going home.