I'm sure some of you will "love" the title of this thread, but that's actually not my idea but the title of a British-Polish book published by "SAVE Britain's Heritage" in 2009:
http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/news/article.php?id=95
Since we already have threads about East Prussia, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Warsaw I think it's a good idea to start a thread about Silesia too, which, in case you don't know, is located here:
Silesia is Polands historically most valuable region. 25% of Polands cultural monuments are located in Silesia, among them more than 2.000 castles, palaces and manors. 600 however are already lost forever, and ~35% of the remaining ~1.400 are ruins. This is mainly the result of Silesias turbulent history. WW2 destroyed large parts of Northern Silesia, but the majority of the destruction happened in the years and decades after the war. The expulsion of the Germans, the resettlement with Poles traumatized by German barbarism and terror, and the deeply ideological politics of the Polish Commies were devastating for Silesia. Today the heritage is endangered by mindless privatizations, indifference and underfunding (Poland spends 42 mio. PLN on Krakows heritage, and 82 mio PLN on the rest of the country).
PS: Prince Charles read the book when it came out and since then wants to buy and reconstruct a castle in the Klotzko region, until now however nothing happened. I don't know the exact reasons, but interestingly a similar project of him in Romania is far more advanced.
So, lets explore the good, the bad and the ugly sides of Silesia. We start with two extremes which perfectly illustrate two parallel developments in the decades after WW2.
First some background:
With the westward shift of Poland the post-1945 frontiers of Poland were similar to those of the Polish kingdom of the 11th century. These so called “Recovered Territories", the ancient Piast lands returning to the Polish motherland after centuries of German occupation, were the founding myth of the Peoples Republic of Poland and essential to its self-definition. Everything remotely related to the Piasts was maintained or even painstakingly reconstructed with great expenses, while the rest of Silesias rich cultural and architectural heritage was often treated with contempt.
http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/news/article.php?id=95
Since we already have threads about East Prussia, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Warsaw I think it's a good idea to start a thread about Silesia too, which, in case you don't know, is located here:

Silesia is Polands historically most valuable region. 25% of Polands cultural monuments are located in Silesia, among them more than 2.000 castles, palaces and manors. 600 however are already lost forever, and ~35% of the remaining ~1.400 are ruins. This is mainly the result of Silesias turbulent history. WW2 destroyed large parts of Northern Silesia, but the majority of the destruction happened in the years and decades after the war. The expulsion of the Germans, the resettlement with Poles traumatized by German barbarism and terror, and the deeply ideological politics of the Polish Commies were devastating for Silesia. Today the heritage is endangered by mindless privatizations, indifference and underfunding (Poland spends 42 mio. PLN on Krakows heritage, and 82 mio PLN on the rest of the country).
PS: Prince Charles read the book when it came out and since then wants to buy and reconstruct a castle in the Klotzko region, until now however nothing happened. I don't know the exact reasons, but interestingly a similar project of him in Romania is far more advanced.
So, lets explore the good, the bad and the ugly sides of Silesia. We start with two extremes which perfectly illustrate two parallel developments in the decades after WW2.
First some background:
With the westward shift of Poland the post-1945 frontiers of Poland were similar to those of the Polish kingdom of the 11th century. These so called “Recovered Territories", the ancient Piast lands returning to the Polish motherland after centuries of German occupation, were the founding myth of the Peoples Republic of Poland and essential to its self-definition. Everything remotely related to the Piasts was maintained or even painstakingly reconstructed with great expenses, while the rest of Silesias rich cultural and architectural heritage was often treated with contempt.