Nowa Huta Tram and Walking Tour in Krakow
Krakow, Poland
Rating: 
Trip Type: Walking Tours
Duration: 4 hours
Rewind to communist days with this 4-hour tram and walking tour of Krakow’s Nowa Huta district. Ride a tram to this eastern suburb and learn how it was built as a model Soviet city. See the main square and tenements, view Cold War-era bomb shelters, and visit the stunning ark-shaped Lord’s Ark church, a symbol of Nowa’s battle for a church during the 1960s. Enjoy a drink in a communist-era restaurant, and learn about life under Soviet rule as well as the 1980s' anti-communism resistance from your guide.
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Rewind to communist days with this 4-hour tram and walking tour of Krakow’s Nowa Huta district. Ride a tram to this eastern suburb and learn how it was built as a model Soviet city. See the main square and tenements, view Cold War-era bomb shelters, and visit the stunning ark-shaped Lord’s Ark church, a symbol of Nowa’s battle for a church during the 1960s. Enjoy a drink in a communist-era restaurant, and learn about life under Soviet rule as well as the 1980s' anti-communism resistance from your guide.
Start your experience with a pickup from your centrally located Krakow hotel, then, with your guide, walk to a nearby station to catch a tram to the district of Nowa Huta — or ‘New Steelworks’ in Polish.
On route, hear how this eastern suburb was planned and built as a model Soviet city after WWII. Designed to house 10,000 people, Nowa was designed in a star shape, with avenues radiating from its Central Square (Plac Centralny) and lined with Eastern Bloc tenements.
Walk around Central Square to view the Soviet architecture as your guide recounts how Nowa was focused on a massive steelworks, from which it takes its name. Hear how a statue of Lenin once stood here, and how the district became a bastion of anti-communist protests and the Solidarity movement in the 1980s.
Visit the iconic Stylowa restaurant, once Nowa’s most elegant eatery. Enjoy a complimentary drink inside the restaurant and absorb the time-warp interiors and atmosphere, both little changed from the 1970s.
Next, explore Nowa’s streets, passing the air raid shelters and a tank dating from the Cold War era. Stop by the old Sphinx cinema, built to provide entertainment in the Soviet period, and view the giant satellite image and photos showing everyday life as it was then.
See the People’s Theatre (Teatr Ludowy) and where, in 1960, Nowa Huta’s people staked a cross to demand a Catholic church. Then, head to the nearby Lord’s Ark Church (Arka Pana), built as a result of their struggles. Constructed between 1967 and 1977, this remarkable building mimics Noah’s ark and was constructed by hand using stones collected by Nowa’s workers.
Lastly, ride the tram back to Krakow center where your tour ends with a hotel drop-off.
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