LEŚNICA - MY LITTLE MOTHERLAND (1)

It will be ten years this May since we moved over here to live in the most special place in Wrocław called Leśnica (the western outskirts of the city, in German Deutsch Lissa). A lot has changed since then and how I wish now I had been taking many more photos of the place which I adore so much and which has become my little motherland. You pass the same streets and paths everyday and just take it for granted that they will always look like that. You don not even know when, suddenly, new buildings appear and the green remote fields and meadows vanish into oblivion, old buildings are pulled down or get renovated and,all of a sudden, you are not able to remember what they looked like before. They are just inside you, you can feel them and the general atmosphere, but if you want to share the feelings it would be much easier to have some more concrete sources. Again, you realize that everything is so fleeting…

Map of Wrocław with Lesnica marked in green (from Wikipedia)

When we moved here in 2002 from a posh district in the south of Wrocław, the people either did not know where Leśnica was or they could not believe that we had changed living in one of the most luxurious districts into going to such a remote, unknown and neglected area. To get to our place you need to walk about 1km from the main bus and tram terminus or take a bus, if you are lucky, because it runs very rarely. At the beginning, it only added to the attraction of living here, because on both sides of our street there was nothing, but green fields, meadows, bushes, woods and some half-legal allotments. It was like entering a completely new world – after the hustle and bustle of the busy Wrocław, in Leśnica, when you passed the main Średzka street, you suddenly entered the slow-paced realm of silence and greenery, an avenue of beautiful old linden trees. Besides, to get to our street first you have to go past the stunning and recently renovated castle and a beautiful park – very quiet and relaxing as not too many people appear there (those from the city do not know about it or it is too far for them and the locals probably have not enough time or do not see anything special there). 

a fragment of the Leśnica castle and the sorrounding park (photo by K. Szostak)

Unfortunately, the peace and quiet of my street disappeared after a few years with more and more blocks of flats which replaced the wild fields.  Still, opposite my place, in just a few metres it is possible to enter the green lungs of Wrocław – Las Mokrzański (The Mokrzański forest) and go jogging, cycling or hiking there, do Nordic walking or just explore the Kirschberg (cherry mountain) aka Goering’s Park and search for the remnants of the amazing pre-war  mansion of Frau Breugmann – the owner of shoe factory, who used to fly her own plane to get to work in Wrocław (!), with huge gardens, fountains and pools in the past, nowadays almost completely covered by the forest.  The wide avenue of dignified hornbeam trees, appearing totally out of the blue when you enter the forest line in an appropriate place is absolutely breathtaking!!!!

View on the high street with the castle on the left and the water tower in the backgound
(from Wikipedia)

I was going to write about the amazingly rich history of Leśnica which dates back to the beginnings of the Polish state in the 10^th century and which hosted almost all Silesian dukes as well as Czech and Prussian kings, but somehow I let it go with the flow and wrote about other things. But I will definitely come back, because this place is extremely fascinating!!!!!