Wałbrzych is: a city in soutwestern Poland, near the border of Czech Republic and Germany.
Wałbrzych was: a German city until 1945. Not a mundane one; besides being a source of high-class coal, the region was a centre of the Nazi symbolical power to come. Riese, underground fortress, was being planned nearby. The famous golden train is said to disappear there. Masoleum for fallen SS soldiers was built.
Wałbrzych was: a highly industrialised city, with four main coal mines and coal industry dating for more than 500 years back, and most of the city’s inhabitants working either in coal, or in other heavy industry.
Wałbrzych was: dubbed Polish Detroit after the closure of mines in the mid-90s changed the unemployment rates to almost 70 percent. Coal was not only the main employer, it was also the core of identity for the region. After the closure, symbolised by the biggest shaft being torn down, a bootleg mining operations started.
Wałbrzych is: a redeveloping city, pictured here minutes before economical stabilisation. A city where the main football team is called Górnik (Miner), but kids don’t know why.
2012-2014
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Wałbrzych was: a German city until 1945. Not a mundane one; besides being a source of high-class coal, the region was a centre of the Nazi symbolical power to come. Riese, underground fortress, was being planned nearby. The famous golden train is said to disappear there. Masoleum for fallen SS soldiers was built.
Wałbrzych was: a highly industrialised city, with four main coal mines and coal industry dating for more than 500 years back, and most of the city’s inhabitants working either in coal, or in other heavy industry.
Wałbrzych was: dubbed Polish Detroit after the closure of mines in the mid-90s changed the unemployment rates to almost 70 percent. Coal was not only the main employer, it was also the core of identity for the region. After the closure, symbolised by the biggest shaft being torn down, a bootleg mining operations started.
Wałbrzych is: a redeveloping city, pictured here minutes before economical stabilisation. A city where the main football team is called Górnik (Miner), but kids don’t know why.
2012-2014
