Planty krakowskie / Planty in Kraków

What is the Planty for Kraków? It is easy to answer: the Planty is one of the most important symbols of the city, in which there are so many symbols that it is difficult to name them all. Can you imagine modern Kraków without the Planty? Here the answer is also simple: no! And can you imagine that some crazy developer turns the Planty into an attractive residential complex? Such an absurd idea might be interesting, but undoubtedly its author could not feel safe in Kraków. I remember the words of Sławomir Mrożek, who years ago asked me if I knew what Kraków’s Błonia was. Then, with a scathing smile, he explained to me that it was the developer’s nightmare... The same can be said about the Planty - and probably even more than about the Błonia: so many trees to be cut down, and nearer the Market Square.

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Perceiving the Planty only in the categories and contexts of urban space is a big mistake: after all, it is primarily a silent witness to all human emotions and events, from transports of love to crimes. If only the Planty trees could talk! It has seen people laughing and crying, lonely and unhappy, in a joyous euphoria after passing their exams at the Polish Studies Institute at Gołębia 20... It has seen the stately university parades to St Anne Collegiate Church, but also thousands of homeless people sleeping on benches. It has heard the Zygmunt bell tolling in exalted moments - and the howling of drunks brimming with hatred or love for the Cracovia or Wisła football teams. These trees have seen and heard everything; nothing human can surprise them. In this book, I take up the question of what the Planty is for me. I try to prove the obvious truth that it is simply beautiful. And how do others see it?

 

Andrzej Nowakowski, from Preface