“The Disappearing City” is the main theme of a series of lectures and meetings organized at Barbara. As part of these events, participants share their knowledge and experiences regarding the gradual disappearance of various elements of Wrocław’s urban landscape. This includes historical buildings as well as commercial and industrial structures, recreational and leisure spaces, and social and cultural phenomena.
We’ve held dozens of events – lectures have been taking place regularly since 2023. We’re still on the lookout for new and unexpected stories and narratives related to the city’s disappearance. We’re particularly interested in the transformations that took place in Wrocław after 1945. We associate “disappearances” with, among other things, political, economic, and social processes; top-down decisions and bottom-up pressure; slow shifts in lifestyles; and sudden transformations.
What topics have we covered so far? (Expand to see the list)
- Dissapearing buildings of Wroclaw – what have lost along with them?
- Life on the wasteland: How nature is taking over a disappearing city
- “There Will Never Be Another Summer Like This” – A Lecture on Disappearing Recreational Spaces
- You won’t be able to eat this anymore! A lecture on Wrocław’s disappearing culinary scene
- Glitter, freedom, and liberation. A lecture on Wrocław’s queer history
- You won’t be riding this anymore! A lecture on the disappearance of public transportation
- A Culture We No Longer Have: A Lecture on Disappearing Cultural Institutions
- It Used to Be There: Wrocław’s Disappearing Monuments and Statues
- Where Won’t We Be Living Next? A Lecture on Disappearing Residential Architecture
- Those were the days! A lecture on the disappearing dance halls, balls, and receptions
- Was it worth going that crazy? A lecture on Wrocław’s vanishing counterculture
- Screening canceled! Lecture on Wrocław’s disappearing movie theaters
We organized 11 lectures on the history of Wrocław’s squares (click to view the list):
- Legionów
We also discussed this phenomenon as we looked back at the postwar decades (click to expand and view the list)
We have reviewed the most significant disappearances during the following years:
- 1940-1949
We expanded on the topics covered in the lectures during special events (click to view the list)
- workshop “Unloved, Unwanted, and Unlucky Buildings: Real and Alternative Biographies”
- workshop “Public Transportation Disappearing from the Map”
- a special screening of the film “The Loop: Film as a Record of a Non-Existent City”
- workshops on creating digital collages titled “Cut Out of the City”
- a group run and bike ride along the trails of the „disappeared”
- Discussion: “Disappearing Heritage – a conversation about preserving modern architecture”
- How can we stop the disappearance? A discussion about ZETO
In 2024, we organized a series of workshops and a project hackathon focused on the Map of the Disappearing City.
This resulted in innovative concepts for visualizing data on the disappearance of the city. You can read more about this initiative on the page The Disappearing City | Design Hackathon: “How to Show Disappearance? .See the video coverage of the eventsydarzeń -> LINK
Map of disappearing Wroclaw
All this exchange of information and conversation led to the idea of creating a map of disappearing Wrocław. It is intended to serve as a unique record of the changes taking place within the city. Its goal is to archive and preserve information about places that are undergoing transformation or disappearing entirely.
The entire initiative aims not only to document the changes taking place in the city, but also to create a space for the exchange of knowledge, discussion, and reflection on the city’s history, culture, and future.
If the phrase “disappearing buildings” catches your attention and you can picture a potential candidate on the map, you can share your discovery by emailing: barbara@instytutkultury.pl
Check out all the places we’ve managed to mark on the map so far!
For information on upcoming events in the Disappearing City series, check out Barbara, our website, Facebook, and Instagram.
Your story on the Barbara stage – join the “Disappearing City” series
In 2025, Barbara announced two open calls for lecture proposals as part of the “The Disappearing City” series. We invited individuals who wish to share their knowledge of Wrocław’s recent history, including both university researchers and enthusiasts.
Both calls generated significant interest, and we have been presenting the submitted topics regularly since the fall of 2025. The audience helps shape the series’ program by taking a seat on Barbara’s stage and sharing their own “disappearing” stories.
The people we collaborated with to organize the events in the “Vanishing City” series:
Aleksandra Abramik, Anka Bieliz, Iwona Bińkowska, Natalia Bobryk-Mauer, Klaudiusz Bogumił, Piotr Buśko, Agata Chmielowska, Maciej Czarnecki, Aleksandra Czupkiewicz, Michał Duda, Paweł Duma, Rafał Eysymontt, Agata Gabiś, Anna Gańko, Aśka Grzelczyk, Joanna Hytrek-Hryciuk, Jan Jerzmański, Iwona Kałuża, Emilia Kiecko, Maciej Kielar, Joanna Klima, Stanisław Kolouszek, Tomasz Kosmalski, Maciej Kruszyna, Wojciech Kucharski, Marek Kuchciak, Joanna Lamparska, Anna Lewińska, Piotr Lis, Dominika Łabądź, prof. Romuald Łuczyński, Mateusz Magda, Grzegorz Majcher, Joanna Majczyk, Mieczysław Michalak, Tomasz Mikołajczak, Magda Milert, Albert Miściorak, Lech Moliński, Adam Pacholak, Mateusz Parużyński, Agnieszka Patała, Maciej Piasecki, Ewa Pluta, Aleksandra Podlejska, Anna Podrez, Zofia Reznik, Kacper Rosner-Leszczyński, Urszula Rybicka, Tomasz Rybka, Jerzy Serafin, Tomasz Sielicki, Mikołaj Smoleński, Beata Stobiecka, Joanna Synowiec, Barbara Szczepańska, Julia Szot, Daniela Szymczak, Agnieszka Tomaszewicz, Alan Weiss, Maciej Wlazło, Łukasz Wojciechowski, Krzysztof Ziental, Kuba Żary.
