We rest! Hotels, Motels and Health Resorts in a Socialist Reality and Landscape

Abstrakt

Leisure for the working masses was one of the main propaganda slogans of the communist authorities. In Poland, as well as in other Eastern Bloc countries, tourism was the exclusive domain of the state. Recreational or spa qualities were decided exclusively by the relevant authorities and institutions, which determined the scale and nature of new investments. Residential and leisure investment policy was associated with traditional tourist destinations such as large cities, as well as the Baltic coast and mountain resorts. Holiday homes located in holiday resorts: by the sea, in the mountains and by lakes, were the realisation of the working class’s demand for leisure. The monopolist in the organisation of tourism in Poland was Union of the Tourism Industry 'Orbis', with a state-owned travel agency and a network of hotels in the largest cities. Already during the Gomułka era, the benefits of financing tourism were recognised. Costly investments in leisure and accommodation facilities became necessary, with the predominance of large hotels managed by state-owned companies. Every foreign tourist, especially those from outside the Iron Curtain, was desirable because of the foreign currency left behind. Hence the numerous investments made in the 1960s and 1970s. The main goal of the article is to outline the most important issues and to show the diversity of processes related to leisure in a broad sense. The text discusses processes related to the development of the accommodation base and presents architectural solutions of hotel facilities located in Warsaw, Poznań, Kraków, Gdynia, Płock or Wałbrzych. The problem of motels as well as holiday homes and spas built in traditional tourist resorts in the mountains and at the seaside was discussed. The subject of hotel, tourist and spa architecture is also a starting point for discussions on broadening the area of research into the most interesting spatial phenomena in Poland located not only in large cities, but also outside the main centres. A separate issue is the manner of their recognition, as well as the problem of valorisation and protection of the recognised objects.