It used to be the bus depot of the Municipal Transport Company. In the 1980s, when Grabiszyńska was called “ZOMO-strasse”, it was a place for mass manifestations that were ruthlessly suppressed by the state militia troops. Today it is the Zajezdnia (Bus Depot) History Centre museum.
‘This place was called the Wroclaw shipyard. It was here that the Solidarity, civil society and the contemporary identity of Wroclaw was born in 1980. It is a holy place for the Solidarity and for those who love freedom. The Zajezdnia History Centre will be a place to express gratitude to those who built Wroclaw after the war.’
How did the Zajezdnia History Centre change the former bus depot of the Municipal Transport Company?
‘The underground part of the 19th-century hall was built during current construction works. On Level -1, there will be an exhibition devoted to the anti-communist opposition movement. An exhibition ‘Wrocław 1945-2016’ is under preparation. The exhibits will include several thousand photographs concerning Wroclaw and a part of 900 accounts relating to post-war migrants. The exhibition will encompass the period till modern times. Altogether, we have 1,800 square meters of exhibition space on two levels and 2.3 ha around the hall.’
In the former bus depot of the Municipal Transport Company, you want to take the audience on a journey in time. If, for example, a 45-year-old man with his 9-year-old daughter comes, what will you surprise them with and what will they see?
‘For example, a fountain and a square with a house from the 1920s. They will come inside and see the times of war. For children, it will be a journey in time – like a flight to Mars. They will hear explosions and see the fight and the Nazi-Soviet occupation. They will pass the house and enter the railway station, where they will hear that some people are departing and some are arriving. This means that they have found themselves in the Wroclaw of the mid-1940s. When leaving the railway station, they will see a prison, where something will be going on, too. Then they will go onto a city square with a newsstand of the Ruch chain and a butcher’s shop from the times of communist Poland. They will see that goods were not bought in those times – they were obtained. Our museum will be devoid of slippers and closed glass cases. You can touch everything here. The interactive Museum of the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw served as an inspiration for us.’
For children, it will be an adventure. For their grandfathers, it will be an opportunity to return to the times that they lived through and remember.
‘I think that they will not find our exhibition boring. We will help them recall the times of their youth by means of various important events, such as the Polish-German reconciliation and the Polish bishops' letter to the German bishops, and they will see faces of actors from the Wroclaw feature film studio. Obviously, they will also come across a large topic concerning the anti-communist oppostition movement – from the Solidarity Trade Union, to the Fighting Solidarity, Freedom and Peace, the Federation of Fighting Youth, the Interschool Committee of Resistance, to the Orange Alternative. We will not force our audience to see some interesting item and tell them that this is something valuable. We invite them to come, experience history and feel the atmosphere of old times. It is an opportunity to see what problems were faced by repatriants in the 1970s, what was available in shops in those days and what was discussed most avidly on the streets.’
photo: Arkadiusz Cichosz
Which exhibits are you particularly proud of?
’We have mementos of Tadeusz Różewicz, which were contributed by his family. We will show a drawer from his desk without any censorship or selection. It contains many interesting and very personal items, such as a volume of jokes about blondes, his eyeglasses, a small mirror with a photo of Claudia Cardinale, a ticket to a book fair (he signed his books there, but he had to buy a ticket, because the woman at the ticket desk did not recognise him), or a box with a flower from his brother’s grave. There will also be other drawers – for example, of Professor Władysław Czapliński. One of the exhibits – a railway carriage – has an interesting story. During its renovation, it turned out to be an original UNRA carriage from 1943, as the inscriptions ‘Illinois – United States of America’. The carriage had stood on a siding of PKP Cargo and fallen to ruin for many years. Visitors will also see photographs of Wanda Kiałka from her exile in Siberia. She was an incredible person. When she was 19, the Red Army entered Vilnius. As a soldier of the Home Army, she was arrested and sent to Siberia. She arrived in Moscow, where she witnessed her commander’s trial. She came back to Vilnius, fought in the Home Army and was sent to Siberia again. She returned to Poland in 1956.’
In this way, we will go to contemporary times?
‘We will show contemporary Wroclaw from the perspective of very large events or important ideas, such as the establishment of self-governments in 1990, the flood in 1997 or the Eucharistic Congress with the famous speech by the Pope, who actually entrusted a mission to Wroclaw by calling it a city of meetings. We will tell you about the European Football Championship 2012. We will show that Wroclaw develops co-operation with twinning cities on a broad scale and we have two important literary awards: Angelus and Silesius. We will not forget to include people without whom it is difficult to imagine today’s Wroclaw, such as Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz, Józef Pinior, Piotr Bednarz, Władysław Frasyniuk, Kornel Morawiecki, Waldemar Frydrych, Rev. Stanisław Orzechowski and others.’
Do you think that it will be understood by visitors arriving in Wroclaw from Germany, Italy or the USA?
‘I think it will. It will be a story of the only Central European city that has experienced an almost total replacement of population – we will strongly point out this fact – and then had to experience something that historians call the implantation and merging process. We will tell how the city was turning into a city of its inhabitants. In the exhibition area there will be a place where we will tell what was happening behind the Iron Curtain in years concerned - these will be topics relating to the war in Korea, flights into space, Woodstock, etc. The key to understand the exhibition is the concept of meeting. We deal with many meetings – Poles and Germans, items of Easter Borderland origin from central Poland and Wielkopolska and those encountered here, a citizen-government meeting or a reconciliation meeting in Cardinal Kominek’s model. I want to stress that ‘Wroclaw 1945-2016’ will not be an exhibition in the same form for ever and ever. We are going to modernise it after some time. It will be a huge space for temporary and additional exhibitions.’
How much do we have to pay to sightsee the Zajezdnia History Centre?
‘The ordinary ticket will cost 10 PLN and the family ticket will cost 15 PLN (family and children).’
The Zajezdnia History Centre is about to be opened, but the ground surrounding the depot has already been available to inhabitants since spring. What will be there?
‘This area (2.3 ha) is already – and will be – open to inhabitants. There is no fence that used to surround the bus depot there. Everyone can come, sit on benches or roller-skate. Our ground has already become a favourite place of roller-skaters. Its even concrete pavement is suitable for them. Parents with children also come there to teach them to ride a bicycle. The ground is being supplemented with new elements. We have already got the famous Wroclaw clock from ul. Świdnicka (Read: Clock with the Spirit of Time is running again[VIDEO]). We are going to open a café, too. We want Wroclaw inhabitants to treat the Centre as a place where they can not only see exhibitions, but also have a nice time. Zajezdnia History Centre - opening on 28th August The inauguration of the Zajezdnia History Centre (28th August) is to be combined with the celebration of the 36th anniversary of the Gdańsk Agreement and the establishment of the Solidarity. On that occasion, the wRock for Freedom 2016 festival will be held on the ground near the Centre. Two bands: Illusion and Sabaton will perform there. Illusion and Sabaton at wROCK for Freedom 2016 Festival Concert / Open-air / Metal / For all / Music / ECC 29 August 2016 5:00 pm Zajezdnia History Centre See The Zajezdnia History Centre is built by the Wroclaw Remembrance and Future Centre. Its activities are co-financed by the Municipality of Wroclaw and the Ministry of Culture. In 2016, the Ministry undertook to support the Centre's activities with the amount of 3 million PLN. Wroclaw will spend 3.2 million PLN for this purpose. The Centre documents and popularises the knowledge of the post-war history of Wroclaw and Lower Silesia. It prepares, introduces and produces publications, exhibitions, documentaries, historical city games and souvenir and memory gathering campaigns. The Zajezdnia Project was created by architects from the Maćków Design Studio. Its construction began in 2015. The entire project should cost 36 million PLN. Read also: Zajezdnia History Centre - opening, tickets [PHOTOS, VIDEO]
