Spatial chaos as a result of war damage and post-war transformations. Example of the small town of węgorzewo

Abstract

World War II’s military activities and the post-war devastation period destroyed many European cities and towns. One of the areas that was struck the most was former East Prussia, currently located in Poland and the Kaliningrad Region (the Russian Federation). In addition to the destruction of cities, which are strategically and economically important, small towns have also suffered. An example of such a town is Węgorzewo, where the scale of destruction of the pre-war urban tissue exceeded 80%, and the old town’s built-up area practically ceased to exist. This town magnifies most of the processes and spatial problems characteristic of Central and Eastern Europe’s towns of the “metamorphic” type. Post-war zoning during the Polish People’s Republic period, in the spirit of constructing a socialist town and bypassing the original spatial arrangement, brought about irreversible changes in the urban tissue. This was reflected in the break with the town’s original layout and the creation of modernist buildings. The changes were solidified or even deepened during the economic and political transition of the 1990s in Poland. Today, decades after the end of World War II, despite taking corrective measures, the town is still facing the problem of spatial chaos. Its morphological and physiognomic manifestations in the lack of a central public space, the loss of its historic character, the disharmonization of the urban landscape, and the dispersed development are the main subjects of this article’s analysis. This study uses a diverse methodological apparatus consisting of an analysis of the town’s morphological transformations, an analysis of the physiognomy of the urban landscape and architecture, in situ studies, and an analysis of municipal documents and expert interviews. In the discussion, the study results are embedded in the context of the cases of other European cities and towns. The conclusions indicate the risks to the formation of spatial order in Węgorzewo and possible paths of action.