| Abstract [eng] |
Reconstruction of Cities in Poland and Heritage Conservation after the WW II Summary Architecture is a major part of human heritage that helps us cognize the Ancient World, the development of human activity and culture, national history, achievements of science, arts and economy. The changes under way in the cities have an impact on the utilization of architectural creations for the needs of the human factor. However, city development is not always a natural process. Sometimes it is influenced by negative human activity. The reconstruction of historic Polish city is the elimination of one of such consequences of World War II. The society at large, architects and even politicians had lengthy discussions about the fate of the cities in the process of rebuilding them from the ruins. The present work investigates the adopted decisions and their implementation process related to the reconstruction of separate Polish cities. The examples of the reconstruction and heritage protection of the most characteristic Polish historic cities give the basis for investigation of the reasons for taking such decisions: what the basic factors were for the decisions to rebuild the heritage sites and what contributed to the heritage protection in the post-war period. The working material shows the Polish phenomenon in rebuilding of the ruined cities; moreover, it reflects the way the Polish example may influence the heritage protection in the neighbouring countries in the process of recreation of historic valuable sites. Reconstruction is an important part of the Polish heritage protection system. When a threat a losing national symbolic monuments emerges, reconstruction is often employed in order to ensure cultural continuation. History has shown that monuments are more important than heritage protection theories. Modern heritage protection tends to assess the reconstruction processes in post-war Poland from its own point of view, which hampers deeper and more detailed evaluation of this process. There is a tendency of varying viewpoint towards cultural heritage reconstruction in international heritage protection legislation, due to which the action of reconstruction acquires new assessments. Poland is an important country for Lithuania, being a closest neighbour and an ally. Both countries are linked by common history and economy. A closer look at the Polish cultural processes may serve as a source of information for Lithuanian researchers. Besides, nobody in Lithuania has attempted yet to analyse reconstruction as a specific method of heritage preservation which has been employed in the Polish heritage protection system. We believe that new knowledge, arising problems, assessments and consequences can be beneficial for Lithuania in its application of the reconstruction method. |
