INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

Part of the cultural heritage, which comprises relics of industrial culture of historical, social, architectural and scientific value.

Within the industrial heritage we distinguish: factory buildings and structures (and their equipment), former mines, warehouses, elements of transport infrastructure (railway terminals, stations, docks, locks), industrial cultural landscape (industry-related urban-architectural complex consisting of housing, commercial premises, places of religious practice and education supporting the past industrial infrastructure).

In Poland, the first industrial manufactories were established in the 1840s. The Prussian Partition was dominated by mining, metallurgy, machinery and textile industry; the Russian Partition – by textile industry (Łódź), metal and machine industry; the Austrian Partition – by textile industry, oil mines and refineries (Jasło, Krosno). During World War II more than 60% of Polish industrial plants were destroyed.

In Poland, the legal status of the industrial heritage is regulated by the Act on the Protection and Care of Monuments of 23 July 2003. Although the Act does not define this term, it points to the need to protect and care for all movable and immovable property of historical value (which include urban systems, building complexes, works of architecture, objects of technology, mines, steelworks, power plants and other industrial plants, movable products of technology, equipment, means of transport, machines and tools attesting to the material culture characteristic for old and new forms of economy, and documenting the level of science and civilization development). The Act regulates the legal, organisational and financial conditions enabling the preservation, maintenance and development of historical monuments (it defines e.g. the framework for scientific research, conservation, use of the monument, popularisation of knowledge about the monument and its importance for the history and culture of Poland). The decision to protect a given historical monument is dictated, among others, by the importance of the monument for the development of technology, time of creation, historical value, architectural (urban) value, state of preservation.

The National Heritage Institute subordinated to the Ministry of National Heritage, and many national and international organisations around the world, e.g. UNESCO, are responsible for supervising technical and industrial monuments in Poland. The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH) is responsible for promoting knowledge about the industrial heritage. On the UNESCO World Heritage List there are two monuments of industrial culture in Poland: the salt mine in Wieliczka and the Tarnowskie Góry lead, silver and zinc ore mine with an underground water management system.

Intangible relics of industrial culture and related artistic phenomena also form part of the industrial heritage. In the 19th century, in strongly industrialised areas, the disappearance of traditional culture and attachment to tradition (Lowenthal) was observed, new forms of organisation of social life, customs and holidays were developed. In Poland, Barbórka [Miners’ Day] is an excellent example. Technological development and industrialisation were a source of inspiration for such trends in art as futurism or social realism.

The industrial heritage is increasingly seen today as a tourist attraction, contributing to the development of industrial tourism, whose main objective is education (learning about the history of plants, facilities and equipment or the historical development of technological processes and products). This type of tourism includes travelling to industrial and technical sites, visiting historical or active sites related to the extraction of raw materials, mass production and technology and industrial landscapes (Mikos), related recreation and active recreation (Osiecki). Industrial facilities are often the main or only tourist attraction in a given area, e.g. the Gold Mine in Złoty Stok. This type of tourism includes visits to places created as a result of reclamation of post-industrial areas or revitalisation measures, e.g. geotourism connected with the salt mine in Kłodawa or “Lisia Sztolnia” in Wałbrzych, as well as museum tourism. One of the most famous examples of attractive industrial heritage for tourists is the reconstruction of a Victorian mining village with the Blists Hill Open Air Museum in Great Britain.

The development of industry and the associated development of urban centres since the end of the 18th century has resulted in the emergence of many phenomena not currently associated with industrial heritage, such as changes in the demographic structure of cities, which are still visible today (the influx of people from rural areas in search of work, resulting in the emergence of poor districts and the relocation of the middle class to the suburbs to houses with gardens; the emergence of public parks in city centres).

[M. G.]

Literature:

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