Welcome to real Silesia
it's already September, and with it come the clouds, rain and an overall depressing atmosphere. Seems just like a perfect time to take a stroll around Silesia's most forbidden districts. Entering them feels like being transported to another dimension... as if time had stopped some 30 years ago.
We are greeted by the characteristic elements of most of the workers' housing districts, which are scattered around here. The plaster is falling off, revealing old brick walls. The windows are all open - so are the front doors, but I don't think anyone would be brave enough to step through them uninvited.
All our moves are carefully watched by the "settlement security", comprised out of various old people peaking out of the upper windows. Despite this, if we were stabbed right in the middle of the open grass patch, nobody would bat an eyelid, and there would be no witnesses. The graffiti "Bytomska Patologia" speaks for itself. Sometimes it's scary to unpack your camera from the bag here...
Another phenomenon of this place is the langue - one which you won't hear in any other place. The people here speak Silesian (by some recognised only as a variant of the Polish language, others see it as an independent language). Before arriving here, I thought it had gone almost extinct, but I couldn't be any more wrong. It's in places like this, where it can thrive, undisturbed by people from the outside.
This is Bytom (aka. Beuthen) Bobrek. This particular settlement dates back to the 1920s and, from what I assume, it was constructed to accomodate the workers for the coal mine, steel mill and cocking plant in its direct proximity.
Upon further inspection of the image, I noticed a white "Maluch" (Fiat 126p) hiding in the background... in retrospect, I wish I had gone closer to photograph it in this out-of-this-world enviroment. :(
The trip to Silesia, which I had this month, visited many places just like Bobrek and there certainly are more pictures to show. I really had thought, that scenes like this disappeared from Silesia's landscape years ago, but boy was I surprised...
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus
Welcome to real Silesia
it's already September, and with it come the clouds, rain and an overall depressing atmosphere. Seems just like a perfect time to take a stroll around Silesia's most forbidden districts. Entering them feels like being transported to another dimension... as if time had stopped some 30 years ago.
We are greeted by the characteristic elements of most of the workers' housing districts, which are scattered around here. The plaster is falling off, revealing old brick walls. The windows are all open - so are the front doors, but I don't think anyone would be brave enough to step through them uninvited.
All our moves are carefully watched by the "settlement security", comprised out of various old people peaking out of the upper windows. Despite this, if we were stabbed right in the middle of the open grass patch, nobody would bat an eyelid, and there would be no witnesses. The graffiti "Bytomska Patologia" speaks for itself. Sometimes it's scary to unpack your camera from the bag here...
Another phenomenon of this place is the langue - one which you won't hear in any other place. The people here speak Silesian (by some recognised only as a variant of the Polish language, others see it as an independent language). Before arriving here, I thought it had gone almost extinct, but I couldn't be any more wrong. It's in places like this, where it can thrive, undisturbed by people from the outside.
This is Bytom (aka. Beuthen) Bobrek. This particular settlement dates back to the 1920s and, from what I assume, it was constructed to accomodate the workers for the coal mine, steel mill and cocking plant in its direct proximity.
Upon further inspection of the image, I noticed a white "Maluch" (Fiat 126p) hiding in the background... in retrospect, I wish I had gone closer to photograph it in this out-of-this-world enviroment. :(
The trip to Silesia, which I had this month, visited many places just like Bobrek and there certainly are more pictures to show. I really had thought, that scenes like this disappeared from Silesia's landscape years ago, but boy was I surprised...
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus