Nowa Huta
Europe's largest new town outside the USSR, now a suburb of the city of Cracow, separated from it by green belt. Nowa Huta, or 'New Foundry', was began in 1949 to serve the Lenin Steelworks, built at the same time. The works, the largest in Europe, produce 9 million tonnes of steel a year. The town has modern church - called after its shape 'The Ark'. The authorities did not want the church built, and it took several battles with the police before it could be completed, in 1977.
Population 219 900
Auschwitz (Oswiecim)
Chemical producing town 54 km (33 miles) west of the city of Cracow. It was the site of the largest Nazi concentration camp, which operated from June 14, 1940, to January 27, 1945. Auschwitz was actually a group of three main camps - Oswiecim, Brzezinka (Birkenau) and Monowice (Dory) - with 39 smaller camps nearby.
More than 4 million people of 39 nationalities were shot, gassed, starved or tortured to death in Auschwitz, and its crematoria burnt up to 12000 bodies daily. Today it is preserved as the National Museum of Martyrology, which, with the world's largest burial ground, at Brzezinka, is a place of pilgrimage.
"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page", St. Augustine said. Here at www.travel-university.org we believe that every page must be read and explored. Travel is an avenue of learning that no text or classroom can teach. The world is a living classroom and you the student. We invite you to the www.travel-university.org library where you can read general interest and detail oriented articles.
