Skawina, Poland in November

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A walk around Skawina on 9 November 2010. Skawina is a town in southern Poland with around 25,000 inhabitants. The town is located on the Skawinka river, a short bus ride away from Kraków. It has a very nice central market square and is surrounded by pleasant hills, especially to the south.

In the late 13th century, three villages existed here: Babice Nowe, Babice Stare and Pisary. They belonged to the Tyniec Benedictine Abbey. In the Middle Ages, the Skawinka marked for a while the boundary between Silesia and Lesser Poland, which resulted in construction of a defensive position, which protected the city of Kraków from the south. On 22 May 1364, King Kazimierz Wielki granted Magdeburg rights to Skawina, and a few years later, the parish church of Holy Spirit was funded here. The town had a defensive wall and a castle. Like most towns at that time, Skawina burned in a fire, but the town was quickly rebuilt and enjoyed the prosperity of the Polish Golden Age. Good times ended in the Swedish invasion of Poland, when Swedish and Transilvanian armies destroyed Skawina, reducing its population by 50%. After the Partitions of Poland, Skawina became part of Austrian province of Galicia (1772). The town remained poor until the second half of the 19th century, when Skawina became a railroad hub, with three lines, to Kraków, Sucha Beskidzka, and Oświęcim. A brewery was built and new businesses were opened.

On 6 September 1939, first Wehrmacht troops entered the town, and German occupation lasted until 23 January 1945. The following Communist government decided that Skawina would become a center of heavy industry. In 1954, the Skawina Aluminum Smelter (Huta Aluminium Skawina) was opened, and in 1961, Skawina Power Plant (Elektrownia Skawina) began operating. The smelter was closed in 1981, due to widespread environmental pollution which it caused. The development of industry resulted in influx of new residents, and construction of several blocks of flats in new districts which you can see in this film.

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There are a number of films here on the packaging industry. This is because I am the publisher of Central and Eastern European Packaging -- http://www.ceepackaging.com - the international platform for the packaging industry in this region focusing on the latest innovations, trends, design, branding, legislation and environmental issues with in-depth profiles of major industry achievers.

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Central and Eastern European Packaging examines the packaging industry throughout this region, but in particular in the largest regional economies which are Russia, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Austria. That is not to say that the other countries are forgotten, they are not, but obviously there is less going on. However the fact that there are so many travel related films here is not from holidays but from business trips attending trade fairs around the region. Every packaging trade fair is a new excuse to make another film!