Report - StrachÃ³w - post-Soviet garrison / ghost town in south-western Poland - Dec 2011

kitajgorod · Feb 28, 2012

I can't post to European sites subforum yet, so I'm posting it here (it'd be totally cool if some of the mods will move it there).

Here are some of the best pictures, the rest is to be found there:
ostwind
KITAJGOROD

StrachÃ³w. A ghost town lost deep in the wild woods of the Lower Silesia. The name can be roughly translated as â€œSpooksâ€. Built originally by Germans, between 1945 and 1993 it was used by the Soviet Army as a closed, secret in fact, garrison town - a dislocation place for several armor and motorized infantry guards regiments, elements of the soviet 20th Zvenigorod Armored Division. The place of their dislocation wasnâ€™t unintentional - these units were a part of a strike force intended to rush on the West in case the Cold War went hot.

It was inhabited by circa 15 thousands of men, women and children - soviet soldiers and their families. Its occupants had everything on place: school, several markets, hospital, gym and so forth. They didnâ€™t have to (and of course werenâ€™t allowed to) maintain any contacts with the local population.

The town was finally abandoned in 1993, after the last soviet troops withdrew from Poland. After that it became a part of the Polish Army proving ground and closed down for civilians. But that fact couldnâ€™t stop us.

We have arrived there at 9am, after a short, but fierce blizzard. And here the story begins.

We were there in early December. The city is huge, it has over 200 buildings (including a lot of Soviet "Leningrad" tower blocks), . W saw maybe 1/3 of everything so I guess there will be another trip on Spring.