Odrarium

The Wrocław's zoo has a few special exhibitions that focus on a specific region or a specific type of animals. Let me take you today to one of them. It is a bit special because zoos usually focus on exotic animals coming from remote places where most people living in that city would never go. But the zoo in Wrocław has a special exhibition devoted to the river Oder that runs through the city. It is called Odrarium.

All starts with a pump room.

The water runs of course on a smaller scale.

Oder is not a particularly clean river, at least judging by this tank.

The fishes do not seem unhappy though.

I was actually surprised by how many different species can be found in Oder. There are salmons and touts. There is even one called piglet.

Each water container is accompanied by a complete list of its inhabitants.

I wonder where does all this air bubbles come from. Do you think that the fish actually sing?

Odrarium is maybe not overwhelmingly impressive but it is really interesting to get to know the fauna and flora of one of the most important rivers in Poland.

These round-shaped windows make me think of the Shire, green and peaceful. Let us stay here for a moment to imbibe this tranquillity.

Zoo in Wrocław

It is hard to believe that it has already been three years since we have visited Wrocław. Today I will take you into the famous Wrocław's zoo that is located just on the other side of the street facing the Centennial Hall.

In the open air you can find animals coming from all continents. The brown bears live in Europe, Asia and North America. They are a protected species, with two hundred thousand teddies left.

African rhinoceros is not only protected. It is also endangered because humans hunt it for its horn.As if they could not mind their own noses.

Another inhabitant of Africa, though probably less known, is Okapi. Looks like a child of love between a giraffe and a zebra.

Asian elephants eat up to 120 kilograms of food per day. They were of course busy eating when  arrived.

Luckily they took a short break to greet us.

Though obviously giraffes are of course present as well.

As you know giraffes love to eat leaves from top branches of the trees. Since in a zoo they cannot move around from tree to another and it is not possible to plant new trees next to them all the time, the zookeepers found a workaround by tying large branches to the fence.

South America is represented by nandu, not to be confused with an ostrich. Have you noticed that there are two of them on the picture?

Nandu's feathers melt with the trunks of the trees. Just like camels are becoming invisible in a large sandy desert.

Actually they are pretty much of the same colour as the king of the animals. But lions do not melt that easily into the grass. Even if they seem to be melting indeed.

I mentioned more than once that the very idea of zoos does not appeal to me too much. Each time I wonder how would humans feel if the roles were reversed. This feeling is particularly strong when I see in a zoo monkeys and apes. Maybe the baboons do not look too familiar (though I have met a few humans who seemed surprisingly close to them).

But a chimpanzee looks very human.

Just look at the food next to the cages of the chimpanzees. If I would tell you that the picture comes from a fancy vegan restaurant, I am sure you woule believe me.

Because we are all a big family - humans and animals alike. We need to respect each other and remember that we share more than what divides us.

Centennial Hall

For our last trip in Wrocław I have left a very special place. A place so special that it is one of fourteen UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Poland. Ladies and Gentlemen - let me take you to the Centennial Hall.

The Centennial Hall was built in years 1911-1913. It commemorates the 100th anniversary of the victory of Leipzig. The Hall is surrounded by a Pergola.

Inside the Pergola there is a large and comfortable lane.

In the back of the Hall there is a "dancing fountain". Unfortunately it was closed for maintenance at the time when I was visiting it.

The tall structure that you see in the back is a "Needle", being a metal construction of 96 meters. It was built in 1948 and at that time it was 10 meters higher. The Needle was put in place for the first big exhibition that took place in Wrocław after the war.

The Hall did not suffer much during World War II. The only "victim" was a wooden roof that used to cover these pillars.

Let's move closer to better see the Hall. You may say that it does not look so impressive and that it is surprising that UNESCO considers it to carry some universal values. Well, you need to realise my friends that it was one of the first buildings of this kind in the world, built with use of reinforced concrete.

Inside the Hall there is an interactive exhibition presenting the construction of the Hall.

You can see its place in the history of architecture. The Centennial Hall was built in a style called expressionist architecture, being a sub-branch of modernism.

What I liked a lot is this comparison between the Centennial Hall and the dome of the Roman Panteon. Please remember that at the beginning of the second century, the Ancient Romans did not have reinforced concrete available.

Finally we may move inside the dome.

Nowadays, the Centennial Hall is a multi-purpose hall, used for concerts, matches, political conventions and masses. For next weekend they plan some music-hall, this is why it is filled up with chairs.

You might have noticed already that this huge dome (it has 65 meters of diameter!) is not supported by any columns. I have been told that when the wooden scaffolding was being removed the main architect, Max Berg, was standing in the middle of the floor, ready to literally bear the consequences of any mistake in calculations. Well, these were the good old days when people knew what "honour" and "responsibility for own acts" mean.

I propose we go up, to the gallery. On the staircase you can see the concrete from which the Hall is made.

I managed to sneak inside one of many conference rooms in the Centennial Hall. That allowed me to understand where are some of those windows that I saw from the outside - they make up the walls and the ceilings of some smaller rooms.

The view from the gallery is definitely worth climbing some stairs (Max Berg did not include elevators in his design). The Centennial Hall is really impressive, both when you look down ...

... and up.

I hope that you have enjoyed this trip in the Centennial Hall. To be honest, flat pictures cannot show it in its real dimension. Therefore I recommend you to take a look at these panoramic pictures.

That was our last point of interest in Wrocław. We leave now Silesia and move on to some new adventures!

Panorama Racławicka

As you know, I am really fond of art. Therefore when I came to Wrocław I planned to visit the exhibitions of the National Museum.

But a little friend has advised me that instead of visiting the main building I take a look at a special exhibition.

This special exhibition is in a special building that is round-shaped.

The reason for this special shape is that it houses a special piece of art - the Panorama of the Battle of Racławice.

A separate building for just one painting you may ask. Well, it is not any painting. It is a huge, 15 meters high and 114 meters long. And all this made at the end of the nineteenth century!

Let's move on to the main gate, the place is very popular amoung tourists and school excursions and we still need to buy tickets.

The Panorama shows a battle that took place in April 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, where the existence of Poland was in danger. Its neighbours, Russia, Austria and Prussia have divided most of the territory of Poland between them and were trying to annihilate it completely. Tadeusz Kościuszko was a prominent general, a hero of the American Revolutionary War.

Inside the museum there are some smaller exhibitions directly related to the Panorama, with some small sketches made during the preparatory work. It took 9 months and 9 artists to paint the final picture.

Additionally, there is also an interactive 3D presentation of the battle, showing the movements of the troops. It is round-shaped of course.

Last but not least, before we enter the main part of the building we may look closely at miniatures of soldiers that time. One amazing think about the Battle of Racławice and the Kościuszko Uprising in general was that the professional Polish cavalry ...

... was fighting arm in arm with the peasants. This democracy was very unusual at that time. You will notice that the peasants do not have sabers or firearms but scythes in the upright position.

The soldiers in green are professional Russian Jägers.

 Time to finally see the main attraction of the place. The Panorama is a cycloramic picture, which means that the viewers are in the middle and the picture is all around them. This gives and impression of really taking part in the battle itself. Here comes Kościuszko on his faithful horse, wearing a long white coat. behind him you see the scythe-bearers.

 You can see how determined they are.

 The cavalry is not lazy either. One amazing thing about this particular panorama is that the picture is "extended" by some additional elements. Like this cannon - it is not painted, it is a real one, just like the sand and some of the tree trunks.

 Here you can see the green Russian soldiers fleeing in panic. The battle of Racławice was a huge success of the Polish forces.

Unfortunately, one won battle did not translate into a won war. Kościuszko and his forces were defeated a few months later and Poland lost its independence for over a century. The memories of the battle of Racławice were a national jewel for a nation without a country. The Panorama was created in 1894 and was originally exhibited in Lwów, which at that time belonged to Austria.

After World War I, Poland regained its independence and Lwów was a Polish city again. It did not last long, since after World War II the borders of Poland were changed again. Lwów became part of Ukraine while Wrocław (which used to be a German city known as Breslau), became Polish. The Panorama of the Battle of Racławice was moved from Lwów to Wrocław (together with many inhabitants of the city) but was not exhibited for many years since the communist party would not allow to celebrate a victory over Russians. The picture was made availabe to the public only in 1985.


P.S. I know many of you follow my blog via RSS or google. To make it even easier, I have asked my secretary to add in the top left corner of the blog a link to my fanpage on Facebook. I hope that you will enjoy it.