We all know them - unbelievable stories, most often with a thrill, yet containing a grain of truth. City legends have been with us for a long time and we can find them in every metropolis. Where do they come from and why do we still believe in them?
Everyone knows the legend of the Wawel dragon and the stuffed sheep. But who has heard the legend of the mathematicians' bench? And about Aurelia, who was wanted all over town? Let's start with the definition of "modern legend". For me, these are places, stories, and people from the recent past - so legendary that some people already know about them, but so young that they have not yet managed to become the feathers of mainstream popularity. Krakow is not only the city of the Kings of Poland. It is also a place where a few geniuses, bums, and freaks lived, and such a mix of personalities sooner or later has to produce different stories and legends.
Truth or Legend?
Let's start with the fact that, as humans, we love stories. In the past, we used to gather around the fire to hear the stories told by the wisest of our tribesmen. Today, we satisfy this need by watching online series and… passing on urban legends. Why? Mythologist Joseph Campbell once stated that we need other people's stories to put our lives in perspective. They are interesting, exciting, and usually contain a grain of truth. This means that, at least in theory, we can become part of them.
Due to these features, urban legends spread among people at a rapid pace. Over time, many of them begin to live their own lives and evolve. Probably most of us remember the story of the Black Volga, a car used by alleged kidnappers in Poland. After 1989, the Volga was replaced by a black BMW, and child kidnappers were replaced by kidney hunters, and so on…. Incredibly many stories have also been written about shoes hanging on high-voltage power lines. What started out as a mere prank, some have even interpreted as a symbol of some sect.
Once upon a time, people were threatened by the Black Volga. Over time, it became a black ambulance. There were rumors of poisoned chewing gum or candy ...
It's really hard to say when the urban legend was born. It is said that this term was coined in 1968 by the American folklorist Richard Dorson. But such stories existed much earlier. It all started at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s. At that time, the then Polish authorities spread a rumor about the Colorado potato beetle dropped onto Polish fields from American planes. At that time, however, this case was not treated as an urban legend.
- For two years, the fight against the Colorado potato beetle has been carried out in Poland, which the American intelligence transferred to our territory to destroy potato fields and cause supply difficulties - it was written in a secret letter sent by the Ministry of Public Security to the heads of provincial and district Public Security Offices. - In 1951, more than 26,000 Colorado beetle outbreaks were found, i.e. twice as many as last year. The Colorado beetle spreads to new provinces and counties. Failure to master the Colorado beetle will result in huge losses for the country. Fighting the Colorado beetle is possible. However, it requires a serious mobilization of the population and the apparatus of private and communal National Councils.
She has traveled to every major city in Poland since the 1960s. Sometimes she had white tires, sometimes she had curtains in the windows. At the wheel were communists, SB officers, Jews, Nazis, and nuns. Blood was drained from kidnapped children (for wealthy Germans suffering from leukemia), and sometimes their organs were excised. The legend returned at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, only this time the hero was a black BMW with horns in place of the side mirrors, personally driven by Satan (in a less extreme version by Russian mafias). The latest versions seat a refugee who pulls babies out of a pram.
Przemysław Semczuk searched for the source of the story for the book "Black Volga. A criminal history of the People's Republic of Poland ”. Mr. and Mrs. Hencl lived at Grochowska Street in Warsaw. In April 1965, two women knocked on their door, claiming to be a distant family. Helena Hensel not only took their word for it but also entrusted her youngest daughter, three-year-old Lilianna, to the care of strangers. As expected, both women disappeared, taking the little girl with them. A witness has been found: the kidnappers boarded the Black Volga with the child. They were identified quite quickly, and Lilka was found safe and sound. One of the women wanted to have healthy offspring, and her daughter was born blind. Hence the idea of the kidnapping. However, the registration and driver data of the car were never identified, and thus the Volga gradually became a legend.
Not only the USA
The United States is a real mine of urban legends. Mainly because, overseas, captivating stories quickly find their way to the big and small screens. Everyone knows the stories about the disappearing hitchhiker or Bigfoot. Many of them were popularized by films such as "The Hitchhiker" or series such as "From the X-Files". In Great Britain, on the other hand, the story of the alleged death of Paul McCartney in 1966 is popular (since then there has been a double of Sir Paul on the stage - which people won't think of!).
If we look at the legends circulating in Polish cities, we will quickly see that we have nothing to be ashamed of in this respect. Both Warsaw, Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków, and Łódź have quite interesting stories to tell, although many of them belong to the past.
Secret communist railway
Then our compatriots started talking about the secret railway for communist notables, which was to be built under the Palace of Culture and Science. On the other hand, there was supposed to be a post-German metro station in Wrocław.
So what is an urban legend really? According to Richard Dorson, the creator of this term, these are false stories that bear the hallmarks of truth. And they roam the urbanized world.
Such a tale has the appearance of true information. Sometimes it is even disseminated by the media, and most recently by the Internet. Usually, it is created by some anonymous person. Most often a friend of a friend. And such a legend quickly becomes the subject of lively discussions of various people. Usually, it concerns health, safety. It also has a hint of mystery. Many people are anxious not to get to the truth about her.
What happiness with this light ...
One of the most popular urban legends on university campuses. Two students live together, they are friends, although they are different like fire and water - one is studying diligently, the other is partying happily. The party girl comes back late at night, she doesn't want to wake her friend up, so she goes to bed in the dark. In the morning he discovers the body of the murdered roommate and the message written in blood: "are you not glad you didn't turn on the light?" The story is well over half a century old but is still readily repeated by the fire. It is meant to be a metaphor for the dangers awaiting a young person away from home when he flows out into the uncertain waters of adulthood. And if you don't take this story literally, it even makes some sense.
A legend repeated in both the United States and Great Britain, first written in 1968. The Unchanging Base tells the story of a woman who drives a car at night, chased by another vehicle, flashing its lights and running over her path. Afraid of a driver who doesn't look trustworthy, the woman just gives the gas and finally manages to escape. In one version, she arrives at her own house, in another, she stops at a gas station and the seller invites her inside under the pretext of explaining the problem with the credit card - anyway, it turns out that there is a murderer in the back seat of the car and it is in front of him. an attempt was made to warn her. Most often, the legend plays a moralizing role: the good Samaritan chasing a woman is accurately described as an unshaven, tall, broad-shouldered, shabbily dressed person, and in this case judging by appearances turns out to be a terrible mistake. So: don't judge a book by its cover. Because look can be deceiving.
Ghost in the City Hall
The same nickname is used to describe the mysterious figure who was to visit the Wielopolski Palace many times, i.e. the present seat of the Krakow magistrate. This time the ghost is to be a young woman secretly beheaded in the palace, who appeared at night to the residents of the building. During the renovation of the palace at the beginning of the 20th century, even the skeleton of a woman was found embedded in the wall. It was supposed to haunt for over 150 years, it was mentioned by pre-war town hall ushers. In recent years, however, the authorities of Krakow have not been visited, or at least no one has admitted having contact with this ghost.
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The last of the black figures encountered in Krakow is to be the Black Princess from the Church of St. Benedict in Krzemionki. This is Kraków's most dangerous apparition - according to legends, it attacks and strangles young men, and finally… tears off their heads. Apparently, in the nineteenth century, you could meet her in Krzemionki, where she waited for a daredevil who would love her and marry her, thanks to which she would provide her with eternal peace. Another version of the legend says that it guards the treasures hidden under the church.
Haunted house, dark forest
However, at Wawel, there are not only historical legends, but also completely modern stories eagerly researched by seekers of ghosts and paranormal phenomena. Several allegedly haunted places fall into this category, which some residents avoid like fire after dark.
The most famous was the house at ul. Kosocicka, in the area of Rżąka, which is part of the Krakow district of Bieżanów-Prokocim. It stood in the place where the cemetery was supposedly located centuries ago. Its construction could not be completed - according to one story, the brothers who were building it quarreled, and finally one killed the other. The local inhabitants were afraid to show up in this area after dark, the ghosts were to chase away the workers who were renovating the nearby road. However, the vacancy was finally demolished in 2016.
Mathematicians' bench
Let's start with the mathematicians' bench. It was 1916. Hugo Steinhaus, a young scientist, was strolling around Planty Park in the evening hours. Suddenly he heard the conversation of two people from the bench next to him and he caught it from it: "Lebesgue integrals". At the time, it was supposed to be a "hardcore" concept, so Hugo was surprised that someone was even talking about THESE topics. The interlocutors were Stefan Banach - a self-taught mathematician and Otton Nikodym - a graduate of mathematics in Lviv.
As it turned out, the gentlemen regularly took walks around Krakow and discussed mathematical topics. Intrigued, Hugo Steinhaus reportedly shared with his newly met colleagues the mathematical problem he was currently working on. Imagine his surprise when Stefan Banach brought him a ready-made solution a few days later!
In 2016, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of this discussion, a monument was erected in Planty Park. Look for it near Wawel - it is one of my favorite monuments in the city. In general, I highly recommend you explore the topic of Stefan Banach. It was a real guest! He did not have a master's degree - he immediately got a doctorate and a professorship.
Missing Aurelia
In many places I came across strange A4 posters, printed on a home printer. The content of the announcement was as follows:
“A girl went missing four years ago. Since the beginning of 2008 and for the whole year, she has been renting an apartment in Salwator Tower 3a, 7th floor in Bronowice. Currently 29 years old, 168 cm tall, size 38, long, fair hair, nice, warm voice. A big reward for information.
The photo showed a woman (and it was strangely artificial and disturbing, by the way). All this made it impossible to pass by indifferently and everyone who came across the poster had to wonder "what the hell is this all about?"
After some time, the case was posted on the Internet, and Internet users conducted their investigation. It turned out that the woman in the photo is Holly Valance - an Australian actress. The likely version of the events is that Aurelka was "the oldest profession in the world" and one of the clients fell in love with her. He visited her every now and then, and finally, Aurelka disappeared. Perhaps she decided to give up her current life? Or was she fed up with a client who was too fast-paced? It's hard to feel. As he did not have a picture of Aurelia, he reworked the picture of the actress, who had to be somehow similar to his heart's chosen one.
Krakow of dragons and ghosts
Krakow is a city older than Warsaw, so city legends also have a long tradition there. The story of the Wawel Dragon from 800 years ago probably also began as an urban legend. Fans of these stories look for, for example, the so-called chakra, or place of power derived from Hindu beliefs. This legend, dating back to the 1930s, places a stone with unusual properties in one of Wawel's walls. Every year, it attracts masses of New Age pilgrims from all over the world.
From historical examples closer to us, we can mention the story of Płaszów. This area was notorious for years because during the Second World War there was a German forced labor camp. It is therefore not surprising that later on, legends about ghosts and mysterious disappearances of people began to appear in the passage under the railway tracks in Płaszów. In the face of the legend, the Krakow journalist Rafał Romanowski turned out to be skeptical - he once stated that a visit to the Krakow Employment Office was much more traumatic than walking down the Płaszów corridor.
A house at ul. Kosocicka in Rżża on the border of Kraków and Wieliczka. Local legend spoke of its former owners, brothers who had killed each other during quarrels. The abandoned house did seem to be haunted. All speculation on this subject was cut short by the demolition of the building a few years ago.
There are also urban legends in the Tri-City. Surprisingly many of them circulate around the Sopot casino, which was a hit among gamblers from all over Europe before the war. So many people lost money there that stories began circulating around the city about suicides hanging en masse in one of the alleys leading to the premises. The so-called alley of hangmen was cleared of bodies every morning by the security services. One of the unfortunates was even the brother of Joseph Stalin (who did not have a brother). Of course, this story, like many others, has been pulled from the finger.
In Wrocław, on the other hand, there are legends about underground shelters, in which the residents of Wrocław were hiding during the siege of the city by the Russians in 1945. These shelters passed the exam because Wrocław defended itself against the Soviet army even longer than Berlin. On the other hand, the imagination of the later inhabitants of the city enlarged these bunkers to the size of an underground city. There was even a rumor about a forgotten subway. It is a pity that today's Wrocław residents are still waiting for a real metro. Or maybe someday this legend will at least come true?
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