Despite the fact that Stalowa Wola remained in the shadow of Nowa Huta and Nowa Tychy in the 1950s, it is still an excellent example of a skillful combination of pre-war modernism and post-war socialist realist and socmodernist architecture. Thus, it is the subject of a tourist attraction and builds a sense of identity and pride among residents. The latest publication is a description of the construction of Stalowa Wola from a hitherto unexplored period. It presents hitherto unknown projects and plans of Stalowa Wola buildings, stories of their creation, and, above all, uncovers the names of most of their authors, architects who have so far remained anonymous.
As a native of Stalowa Wola (in colloquial speech, residents of the Nadsanka agglomeration use the term “stalowiak”), I decided to start looking for the character of the city, its personality, in a word – identity. Above all, I was interested in the characteristics that distinguish this city from others. [In my opinion, the residents of Stalowa Wola have unique resources of local heritage. Its richness is evidenced by the ethnic group of Lasowiaks, pre-war modernist architecture, industrial heritage (steel mill and power plant), social realist assumptions and post-war social modernism. Each city has its attractions and unique places, creating its identity, building pride, character, and at the same time attracting tourists, eager to visit unique, unparalleled elsewhere objects. What does Stalowa Wola have that no other city has? Answers to this very question is to give the Reader this monograph – we read in the introduction.
The album is distinguished by high editorial quality and original graphic design. A real wealth are the numerous archival urban plans found by the Author (some have not been published before), drawings of objects and black and white photographs of urban development. Thanks to them the Reader walking along the streets of Stalowa Wola can confront architectural designs of buildings with how they look today. Sometimes differences can really surprise.
Marek Adam Stankowski (born in 1960 in Stalowa Wola), art historian, graduate of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin in Lublin. Fascinated by the nature, history and culture of the Nadsanie region, in 2006 he published his first album entitled Dolina Dolnego Sanu. This was followed by others: Nadsanska Jasna Gora (co-author and editor, 2008), Radomyska Zasanie (2009), Zasan portraits (2010), Between San and Łęg (2011). He first portrayed his hometown in the album Stalowa Wola. Architecture of the flagship investment of the CID (2008). He was associated with the Stalowa Wola Steelworks since 1980. From 1995 to 2014 he worked at the DRESSTA marketing company, where he was responsible for advertising construction machinery exported to almost 100 countries around the world. After the incorporation of the company in 2014 by the Chinese conglomerate Guangxi LiuGong Machinery, he continued to fulfill the duties of advertising chief until 2017. He described the history of construction machinery production and export in the album Steel Colossi (2010 and 2012), and the history of artillery and engineering equipment production in the album The Power of Stalowa Wola (2010 and 2013). Thanks to his many years of research, he documented the characters of the key architects of Stalowa Wola: Eng. arch. Bronislaw Rudzinski (1906-1994), Eng. arch. Jan Bitny-Szlachta (1908-1974) and Eng. arch. Hanna Szwemin-Pater (1918-1969). Co-author of the monograph edited by Elżbieta Przesmycka Stalowa Wola. European modernist city (2014 and 2017) published under the honorary patronage of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
