It feels like so long ago now, but just last month I was exploring the stunningly beautiful streets of Wroclaw, Poland, with one of my favourite bloggers – Ashton Jade.
Being the organised person I am I did a tonne of research on what to do before I got there, and the one thing that kept popping up EVERYWHERE was a Wroclaw dwarf hunt.
I have to admit it did seem extremely odd to begin with but after looking at pictures of these adorable little gnomes I was super excited to get started on our own little hunt.
I know you’re all thinking “Wait Kirsty, what the bloody hell is a Dwarf hunt?” – right?
Well, it’s exactly what it says it is. Across the city there are rumoured to be around 350 dwarfs for you to find, however, the official site says there are 165 and counting. Some are hidden in plain sight, whereas others are a little bit more difficult to find – which is where it can get a little fun.
Wroclaw Dwarfs – A Brief History
Back in the 80’s, communism was still present in Poland and police were strict about any sort of secret meeting and manifestation. Luckily, a group of individuals began a movement called the Orange Alternative where they used the absurd and the nonsensical to avoid being arrested by the police.
In 2001 the Polish anti-communist movement put a statue of a dwarf on Swidnicka, where the group’s happenings used to take place. It was also the same street our apartment was on, which is actually pretty cool.
Then, in 2003 the mayor of Wroclaw wanted to continue the tradition, so installed a small plaque on the door of The Dwarfs’ Museum. If you look closely it can be found at the height of human knees on the wall of a historic tenement called Jaś.
Four years later five more dwarfs were designed by Tomasz Moczek, a graduate of The Academy of Art and Design, then placed in August. Since then, the dwarf count has grown and a festival is held to celebrate them each September.
Most dwarfs are placed outside businesses, restaurants or tourist attractions and when speaking to someone who worked in one of the Rynek souvenir shops we found out that it costs 6,000 zloty to get you’re own commissioned. That’s around £1200.
Our Wroclaw Dwarf Hunt
The first day we spent quite a lot of time wandering around looking for dwarfs because it was so fun. We’d be walking along having a conversation then one of us would shout DWARF and we’d both grab out cameras and get snapping, it was great. I honestly felt like a big kid on a MASSIVE scavenger hunt.
As there were so many to find we were constantly on the look out, even on the second and third days when we ventured out a little more.
We even bought ourselves two different maps to see if we could find them all but in the end managed a very disappointing 27. They’re SO hard to find.
Here are a few of my favourites:
As I’ll be going back in June 2017 I’ll definitely be posting a Wroclaw Dwarf Hunting: Round Two! 😉
Kirsty Leanne
xoxo
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