DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25050#0348
THE FORMER SUBURBS
NEWER DISTRICTS
The charter of 1257 determined the line of town development
along the Wawel Market Square axis. Many settlements nestled
close by, with equally old traditions, remained outside the city
perimetre and in the following centuries were reduced to the role
of its agricultural base. The first industries were also built there:
flour mills, lumber mills, and tanneries. Besides Kazimierz, two of
those settlements were later granted town charters: Kleparz, just
outside the walls, and Podgorze, created after the border with
Austria was set up along the Vistula in 1772. The city deve-
lopment in the nineteenth and twentieeth centuries led to gradual
swallowing up of the suburbs and even the neigbouring villages.
Such a process was inevitable and welcome, if an even pace of
development had been maintained. The rapid industrialization
after the Second World War, though, introduced marked dispro-
portions. That led to growing social and economic problems and
to the damages in the historic fabric of the city, even in those
places where a measure of common sense and good will could
have prevented it. As a result of successive administrative restruc-
turings, some historical place names were supplanted by arbitrary
names. In no official register would one find such names as Piasek,
Zwierzyniec or Wesola, the ancient tradition of Kleparz sur-
viving only in the name of its open-air market. The unimportant
village of Krowodrza gave its name to a huge district comprising
one fourth of the city’s area. The historian cannot come to terms
334
NEWER DISTRICTS
The charter of 1257 determined the line of town development
along the Wawel Market Square axis. Many settlements nestled
close by, with equally old traditions, remained outside the city
perimetre and in the following centuries were reduced to the role
of its agricultural base. The first industries were also built there:
flour mills, lumber mills, and tanneries. Besides Kazimierz, two of
those settlements were later granted town charters: Kleparz, just
outside the walls, and Podgorze, created after the border with
Austria was set up along the Vistula in 1772. The city deve-
lopment in the nineteenth and twentieeth centuries led to gradual
swallowing up of the suburbs and even the neigbouring villages.
Such a process was inevitable and welcome, if an even pace of
development had been maintained. The rapid industrialization
after the Second World War, though, introduced marked dispro-
portions. That led to growing social and economic problems and
to the damages in the historic fabric of the city, even in those
places where a measure of common sense and good will could
have prevented it. As a result of successive administrative restruc-
turings, some historical place names were supplanted by arbitrary
names. In no official register would one find such names as Piasek,
Zwierzyniec or Wesola, the ancient tradition of Kleparz sur-
viving only in the name of its open-air market. The unimportant
village of Krowodrza gave its name to a huge district comprising
one fourth of the city’s area. The historian cannot come to terms
334