What do Poles associate Piła town with? Song by polish band Strachy na Lachy? Light bulb factory? A deer on a famous neon sign? This article tell a story of a city with an idea for its development, a town which is not afraid to apply for funds and then use them to the benefit of its residents.
Imagine it's 2016. The author of this article lives in the countryside near Warsaw. New neighbors move in - a married couple who moved from Warsaw. Me and my new neighbor become fast friends. Our time is made more pleasant by weekend barbecues, bonfires and men's meetings in the garage. Of course, with orange juice (wink here).
Where they dance the tango
My friend (let's call him Adam) comes from Okonek in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It's quite close to Piła, about 50 km. In the years 2000-2004, Adam studied at a high school in Piła and often mentions this city. It was during one of such men's meetings that he played the song "Pała Tango" by a famous Polish rock band Strachy na Lachy. Grabaż and Kozak, members of this band, come from Piła. I immediately fall in love with this song. I am fascinated by how vividly, humorously and eloquently you can write about your memories and the city you come from.
"In times when above Piła were flying aeroplanes
Province governor Śliwiński told us to paint the fences
Then all fences in Piła had green colour
With the cuckold on a skyscraper Piła greeted the deers"
Strachy na Lachy at Pol'and'Rock Festival 2022 (photo: Ralf Lotys)
Planes, province governor and deer
Beautiful, isn't it? How much history of the city there is in these lyrics. Adam explains these references to me.
The planes were flying because a military aviation unit was stationed at the airport in Piła. Now they don't fly so often because the military has said goodbye to the airport. At the end of 1997, almost all Su-22 planes which stationed there left for other units. Today at the airport there is a flying club.
Andrzej Śliwiński was the first province governor of Piła in the years 1975-1980. Even though these times are long gone, he is a person remembered very warmly and made a great contribution to the development of the city. In 2001, he was elected by the inhabitants of Piła as the person of the 20th century. Painting fences is by no means his greatest achievement. This line is more like a wink of an eye. The governor contributed to Piła in several other ways, e.g. two-lane roads were built in the direction of Poznań, Gorzów Wielkopolski and Złotów, and a lot of residential buildings were built in Piła itself.
The deer on the skyscraper is the famous neon sign with a deer and the slogan "Piła welcomes you".
"In the past, when there was no bypass, when entering Piła from Poznań, you had to pass this neon sign. It's a bit of a symbol of Piła" - explains Adam.
The history of this neon sign is fascinating. As the portal asta24.pl writes, it was made by two artists - Eugeniusz Repczyński and Eugeniusz Ćwirlej - at the request of the first secretary of the socialist party, who wanted to fill the void in the skyscraper left by the recently moved radio and television transmitter.
"I was young, brilliant, clever and I said: gentlemen, the matter is settled, we are making an advertisement for "Piła welcomes you" or "Piła says goodbye" - to choose from" - says Eugeniusz Repczyński on the website asta24.pl.
In 2016, inhabitants of Piła fell into fear. The deer disappeared. Fortunately, only for a moment. It was replaced with a new, energy-saving, LED one.
Piła from a bird's eye view (photo: Grzegorz Paluch, source: Facebook "Miasto Piła")
A city with potential, but also problems
Why am I writing about all this? I have never been to Piła, but it is a city with which I have very positive associations. Even though the song by Strachy na Lachy has a rather bittersweet taste. Sweet because it refers to the years of youth. Bitter, because it highlights several weaknesses of the Piła back in 2005 (the song was released 19 years ago).
There is no doubt that Piła is one of the cities that still bear the burden of administrative reform in Poland. On January 1, 1999, 33 cities lost the status of voivodeship capitals. The number of voivodeships was limited from 49 to 16. Piła was one of them.
Today, many cities that once had capital of voivodeship status and are now district capitals (in Poland districts are smaller than voivodeships) are on the list prepared by the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2019. This is a list of 139 medium-sized cities at risk of losing their socio-economic functions. Piła is among them, just like several other former provincial cities (Elbląg, Jelenia Góra, Legnica, Słupsk, Tarnobrzeg).
When I found out that Piła had just completed its project co-financed by the EEA and Norway Grants, I was happy. I was very curious what the city's idea for development was. After all, this is the idea of the Local Development Programme - to support cities in finding ideas for themselves.
Piła's potential is really great. It is the largest city in northern Greater Poland. Let us add that the city is very green, because almost half of its area is covered with greenery. There are several lakes near Piła, and in Piła itself there are 7. There are also three universities in the city. Piła has a lot of qualified employees, especially in the IT and lighting sectors. For years, Signify company has been operating in Piła (formerly Philips Ligtning Poland). To quote Strachy na Lachy: "In Piła, family and light bulbs are sacred”.
Piła airport (source: Piła City Hall)
39 ideas for development
Officials from Piła were not idle. In 2020, they decided to use the EEA and Norway Grants to boost the potential of the city. It worked. They acquired PLN 15 million (~EUR 3.5 million) , which turned into PLN 17 million after increasing the funding at the end of 2023.
The activities that were financed with this money were very different - soft, i.e. focused on building relationships with residents, building identity, developing competences (e.g. Academy of Skills, diving workshops for people with disabilities, 4 Elements festival) and investment activities, although related to soft activities (e.g. reconstruction of the so-called Okrąglak at Okólna 32a street and the establishment of the Piła Institute of Integration and Education there).
In total EEA and Norway Grants went to 39 projects. All of them were carried out under the common banner "City of Piła with new energy!". It turned out that the acquired over PLN 17 million became a great opportunity to implement activities that were not always given priority in city budgets, especially activities that were not typical investments. It is difficult to write about all 39 projects. Officials will probably address this in their reports. Let's look at at least a few ventures.
Extreme rehabilitation
Something that is absolutely captivating is the project of the Krok po kroku HSA (Handicapped Scuba Association). The association works for the rehabilitation of people with disabilities (e.g. people with motor and intellectual disabilities, people with progressive diseases) and people on the autism spectrum. The most interesting thing here is the method of rehabilitation. This is done through the extreme sport of diving.
Diving course for people with disabilities (photo: K. Trawiński)
"The experience of diving, a sport inaccessible to most able-bodied people, provides a sense of uniqueness and a chance to change lives" - the association writes on its website.
40 people took part in the project.
"These were people with disabilities and social exclusion. More than half of these forty managed to obtain a diving certificate" - said the president of the association, Krzysztof Trawiński, to Polish Radio Koszalin.
Participants of the diving course (photo: K. Trawiński)
Seniors hand in hand with young people
Slightly less extreme activities take place in the so-called Okrąglak. It is a building from 1920, located at the Okólna 32a street. The building used to be a kindergarten, then served to the homeless people, and now houses the Piła Institute of Education and Integration. The city authorities invested in the renovation of Okrąglak and adapting it to the needs of people with disabilities and seniors. There is an elevator, a ramp at the entrance to the building and parking spaces.
All these solutions are of great importance because the institute is a place intended for intergenerational integration. It helps elderly people develop and become active, and for young people it is a space to spend time actively and draw on the experiences of other people.
The so-called Okrąglak - the seat of the Piła Academy of Education and Integration (photo: Piła City Hall)
There are language and computer rooms here, seniors can learn English, French and computer basics, computer use and applications for seniors. A series of ecological workshops for young and those slightly older are also held here. It is a friendly place for seniors and young people. In addition to the building, an educational garden was created around it. Nowadays, every primary school in Piła has its own flowerbed, in the cultivation of which children are supported by seniors experienced in gardening.
"This place is intended to integrate, as the name suggests. First of all, it should be integrated across generations. We would like both seniors and young people to have their place here" - said the president of the association, Krzysztof Trawiński, to Polish Radio Koszalin.
Works in the educational garden next to Okrąglak (photo: Piła City Hall)
A unique competition
A place intended to serve young people is only part of the city's offer for this group. The "City of Piła with new energy!" project team prepared many initiatives for young people. One of them is the Piła Skills Academy - a competition in which 5 teams of students and teachers from 5 secondary schools in Piła took part. Their task was to create business cards for entrepreneurs in the form of a multimedia presentation and promotional films.
The teams were thoroughly trained in public speaking, the art of creating business presentations, design thinking and the production of advertising films. They worked on their projects for several months. The final gala of the competition took place on March 14, 2024. The winner was the team from the Economic School Complex in Piła. They won the jury award and the audience award
Winners of the Piła Academy of Skills - representatives of the Economic School Complex in Piła: Bianka Pierzyńska, Julia Rolbiecka, Alicja Domańska, Krzysztof Surdykowski and Adam Bembnista (photo: Piła City Hall)
"It helped me a lot in developing communication with people. I would like to thank the Municipal Communication Company Piła, which gave us many opportunities that allowed us to win this award. A great experience, a great chance to acquire new skills. The workshops are also TOP" - said Krzysztof Surdykowski from the awarded team to the asta24.pl portal.
"First of all, one should notice the students' commitment. Creating a team and using skills they may not have even been aware of. Finally, this presentation on stage is also about overcoming stress and unusual situations" - said Beata Dudzińska, acting Mayor of Piła.
A spacetrip
The last project I would like to tell you about is the Aviation Education Center and… space trips! For me, this is an example of how a city can use its advantages. An official dealing with regional development in my ministry would say that it is about "development based on endogenous potentials". I prefer to talk about advantages.
And such an advantage is the airport in Piła. On a daily basis, it serves, among others, the flying club. There are several dozen shelter hangars at the airport, and one of them is the Lunares base. Simulated space missions to the Moon and Mars take place here.
Lunares base open days (photo: Piła City Hall)
"It's a simple, container-like structure. It's not a prototype of a space base, but an isolation laboratory, where the entire space is similar to a space base. People live, work, have laboratories and places to sleep there. We also have a large aircraft hangar where simulated space walks. Our facility has very good equipment and we collect data very carefully. But the most important thing is that there are real people there who are isolated" - said Leszek Orzechowski, director of Habitat Lunares, in an interview for Wprost in September 2023.
Lunares and the "Space is more" Association cooperated with the city on the project. Last year, the base opened to Piła residents four times. They could participate in simulated space missions. You could visit the space station and see the conditions in which analog astronauts work and rest. There were also interesting facts about space and humanoid robots that made contact with humans. Everyone could build their own sky map, a special maze for robots and check how to control the robot.
But there is also an city’s complement to the Lunares habitat. In the twin shelter hangar next to the Lunares base at the airport, an Aviation Education Center is being built - a modern base dealing with aviation and space technologies, where research and educational activities for children and young people will be carried out. There will also be a planetarium where you can observe the cosmos, an educational space for conducting experiments, and an exhibition space where topics related to aviation and space will be presented.
The area around the rebuilt shelter hangar will be developed in the form of, among others, an educational garden with the possibility of presenting, for example, educational elements related to renewable energy. There will also be a parking lot for cars and buses.
Is it going to be a new tourist attraction? The city is convinced that an extremely interesting facility will be built, which will allow children and young people to learn the secrets of space, issues related to aviation, but also see how renewable energy installations work.
We encourage you to visit the project website. You will find plenty of photos and information about the project there.
Project "The City of Piła with new energy!" obtained over PLN 17 million in funding from the EEA and Norway Grants under the Local Development Programme.
Author: Paweł Nowak (Communication and Promotion Unit, Department of Assistance Programmes, Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy)