Dubbed "The Dragon Trail," the project involves installing unique miniature dragon statues in prominent tourist locations across the city, Poland’s PAP news agency reported on Wednesday.
“I believe that, thanks to these whimsical monsters, whose presence in Kraków alludes to a well-known legend, strolls through selected city locales will now be even more captivating,” Deputy Mayor Andrzej Kulig was quoted as saying.
“And it should be an attraction for the young and young-at-heart," he added.
The dragon is a symbol of Kraków. According to a medieval legend, a fearsome beast by the name of Wawel Dragon, also known as the Dragon of Wawel Hill, terrorised the city until it was defeated by a clever cobbler ("not a valiant knight, mind you").
Today, the legend endures as an integral part of Kraków's cultural heritage with tourists entering the dragon’s den, guarded by a six-metre-tall fire-breathing statue installed in 1972.
Photo: westonruter, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Now the visitors will be able to enjoy the Dragon Trail, an initiative that will finally see the materialisation of ideas submitted as part of the city's participatory budgeting process in which proposals put forward by residents have a chance of being put into practice.
But unlike the legendary formidable Wawel Dragon that lurks in a cave, the new figurines will neither gush fire nor be particularly frightful.
Ranging from some 35 to 50 centimetres in length, the diminutive statues will be intricately tied to a specific location and equipped with special QR code plaques linking to the city's historical details.
Each dragon figure is set to have its own unique features to refer to its particular location, including a photographer, surveyor, tourist, painter, fish, a dragon with a kite and one with a map.
Initially featuring seven items, the route is set to expand to include an additional 10 next year.
The dragon project was inspired by the famous Dwarf Trail in the southwestern Polish city of Wrocław.
Kraków, however, will have a long way to go to rival Wrocław, which boasts over 600 figurines of dwarves dotted around the city.
(mo/gs)
Source: PAP
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Michał Owczarek.
