Attraction

Central Square in Krakow: Nowa Huta's five-sided square

Central Square is the five-sided square at the centre of the Nowa Huta plan, built in 1952-1955 and surrounded by housing estates designed by Janusz Ingarden. Its south side, planned for a theatre and a house of culture, was never completed.

Five wide avenues radiate from Central Square in Krakow, the five-sided square in Nowa Huta that was built in 1952-1955. It is in Nowa Huta, which the Museum of Krakow calls the youngest district of the city, and it is not the Main Market Square (Rynek Główny) in the Old Town, which has its own page. Its official name is R. Reagan Central Square (plac Centralny im. R. Reagana). The square is public space, and there is no ticket.

What to see on Central Square in Nowa Huta

The City of Krakow calls Central Square the most recognisable point of the Nowa Huta district and says that the square and the buildings around it form a well-composed whole. Aleja Róż (Avenue of Roses) runs north from the square. The Museum of Krakow describes the square as an extremely important place for the people of Nowa Huta.

The houses on the square were built in 1952-1956 to a design by Janusz Ingarden and Tadeusz Ptaszycki. The City of Krakow counts them among the most emblematic works of socialist realism in Nowa Huta. Around the square are housing estates designed by Janusz Ingarden and given the simple names A, B, C and D. Like all Polish socialist-realist schemes, these estates draw on Renaissance and Baroque architecture.

Socialist-realist buildings in Nowa Huta have a compact form, dense development and historicising details such as cornices and attics (low walls above the cornice). Along the main streets these buildings form "screens", with passages for pedestrians and vehicles and with shops and services on the ground floor.

Nowa Huta Meadows (Łąki Nowohuckie) lie by Central Square. The meadows are a large green area and a remnant of an old bed of the River Vistula, where many species of plants and birds live.

History of Central Square and Tadeusz Ptaszycki's plan

The first residential buildings of Nowa Huta were built in June 1949. The spatial layout of Nowa Huta draws on the Renaissance concept of the ideal city. The plan is based on a pentagon, with a central square at the centre and five main roads radiating from it.

Nowa Huta was meant to be socialist in content and national in form, and its socialist-realist buildings were erected in 1950-1956. The plan of Tadeusz Ptaszycki, the chief architect of Nowa Huta, was never fully carried out. The buildings on the south side of the square were never completed, although a theatre and a house of culture were planned for that side.

A Nowa Huta town hall was also planned on the extension of Aleja Róż, but it was not built. The town hall, the theatre and the house of culture were all removed from the construction plans after 1956.

In 2004 the urban layout of Nowa Huta was entered in the register of monuments. Since 2020 the cultural landscape of Nowa Huta has been protected as a cultural park (Park Kulturowy). In 2023 the President of Poland recognised the architectural and urban complex of Nowa Huta as a Monument of History.

In 2024 Krakow officially joined the Atrium Association, which is responsible for the Council of Europe Cultural Route "Architecture of the Totalitarian Regimes of 20th Century Europe". Nowa Huta is now part of this route.

R. Reagan Central Square: the name adopted in 2004

In 2004 Krakow city councillors proposed renaming Central Square after Ronald Reagan. Residents formed the Committee for the Defence of Central Square. Their protests led to a compromise that satisfied both sides. On 8 September 2004 the councillors adopted the official name R. Reagan Central Square.

Address and access in Nowa Huta

The official address is Plac Centralny im. Reagana, Krakow. The square is one of the points on the city's Trasa nowohucka (Nowa Huta route), published on the City of Krakow website. Our Nowa Huta tour covers the district and its Central Square, with hotel pickup and a licensed guide.

Bar Mleczny Centralny and Mogiła Abbey near the square

Bar Mleczny Centralny is about 150 m from Central Square. The Nowa Huta Reservoir (Zalew Nowohucki) is about 1300 m away, and Mogiła Abbey is about 1400 m away. These distances are measured in a straight line, not along the streets.