Since G had his trip to Wrocław last September, we have been looking forward to seeing the Dwarfs of Wrocław, which are also called Gnomes by some, so excuse me if I confuse you by calling them both Dwarfs & Gnomes, as they are called both by people here (more often gnomes to be fair).
Wrocław is pronounced vrohtz-wahv (or in my poor phonetic spelling, which captures the way that I pronounce it, which is probably wrong to be fair, rawtz-love).
The dwarfs are more than just cute, they are a symbol of the anti-Soviet resistance movement (Orange Alternative) that helped to topple the Soviet regime in the 80’s. At that time they painted dwarves on walls. The brass statues started popping up in the early 2000’s & are created by an artist called Tomasz Moczek who is on facebook & has a website too. Each dwarf captures a part of the history & life in Wrocław, as well as commemorating the Revolution of the Dwarves.
There are over 1000 of the little dwarfs around the city & whilst there are maps that you can pay for, they only capture a few. They have cute little maps for kids, where they can collect stamps too from a few places, which is pretty fun. However if you are a little hardcore like us, the best way to find them is via an app, called Wrocław Dwarfs that you can download. I was told that it was only in Polish & that I would need to translate, but when I started using it, it was all in English, so I assume it is in both Polish & English.
I have been using our time out in hunt of the gnomes/ dwarfs not only to improve the kids observation skills, but also navigation & they are a cute way of teaching them the history of the area as well.
You should note that not all the dwarfs can be seen by the public easily, with some located inside or even at the tops of some buildings. Some of those areas you need to pay to gain access to & others you would need special permission to see (so you have little to nil chance of seeing, except in pictures).
The picture above is one of the many dwarf’s we found yesterday. He wasoutside one of the many Zabka’s around Market Square & is simply titled Solidariusz Walczący, which is part of the Fighting Solidarity series of Dwarfs. This one is depicted secretly broadcasting radio messages, there’s also a plaque nearby that mentions that he is there to commemorate the opposition broadcasters.
I love these little guys & have quite the collection of images already, so if you want to see more, feel free to follow our IG for more pics of these little guys & keep track of the rest of our travel adventures.
***
Further reading about dwarves can be found in the following links;
BBC – The cheeky gnomes taking over Wrocław
Orange Alternative Museum
Travel Breathe Repeat – The gnomes of Wroclaw, Poland
Journey Wonders – The Dwarfs of Wroclaw: Gotta Catch Them All!
They are also mentioned on the official visit Wrocław page, along with other suggestions of things to do & see here.