Burdensome legacy of sports and tourism facilities from the time of the Polish People’s Republic
Authors: Rudnicka-Bogusz Marta 
Published: December 2020

“Unwanted child”, “ill born”, “concrete monsters”, “tendentious” – architecture created during the previous regime in Poland has been called many names. It has been accused of faulty craftsmanship, failed stylistics and dehumanized scale of settlements. However, this seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as the designers of the post-war Modernism era took great care both of the stylistics and the functionality of their designs. Even despite having to design in extremely difficult political and economic circumstances. There were shortages of qualified labour and construction materials, and political propaganda interference on a daily basis. But the architects collaborated with painters and sculptors, and at the same time, observed the CIAM guidelines, producing some of the most imaginative, celebrated and humane examples of architecture in modern-day Poland. There is nothing to be said but praise about architecture for leisure and recreation in the form of the PTTK Tourist House in Płock designed by Marek Leykam, Ustroń-Zawodzie district by Aleksander Franta and Henryk Buszko or the “Warszawianka” sports centre designed by Jerzy Sołtan and Wojciech Fangor. Architecture is the art most susceptible to ideology, as it cannot be realized without a patron whose interests it serves, and recreational architecture bears the mark of the era of its creation. Sports and recreation were promoted in the People’s Republic of Poland. The employing institution financed employees’ holidays, and therefore, many of the companies were encouraged to build their own holiday resorts. For the most part, these objects were state funded and subsidized when they operated. The large scale complexes, like Ustroń-Zawodzie, were intended for collective leisure of workers originating from that same industry branch. They were the means of propaganda and social engineering aimed at consolidating and showing appreciation for specific social classes. For the less well-off and those who preferred closer contact with the nature Polish Tourism and Sightseeing Society offered accommodations in hostels. As state owned, they were granted priority locations, like the abovementioned Leykam’s hostel in Płock on the Vistula embankment or the Miramar Hostel in Sopot designed by Stanisław Sowiński on the front shoreline of the Baltic Sea. The architects chose the functionalist approach and stylistics that allowed them more creative freedom. The authorities gladly welcomed modernist aesthetics. It fitted the ideology of a new forward-looking society, free of historic constraints. The transformation after the year 1989 significantly affected all aspects of architecture. Many leisure objects and resorts fell into disrepair without funding. Some of them were purchased by private investors and adapted to the contemporary needs with disregard for the original stylistics or simply torn down. On many occasions, the razing of modernist buildings has been met with applause from the general public, despite the efforts of art historians and architects who strive to educate on the merits of the post-war Modernism and preserve the outstanding examples. These objects constitute the so-called “dissonant heritage”, as despite being propagandist, they are also a significant part of a modernizing movement in a country worn out by war and prime examples of the style.