Wrocław is one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in Poland, and if you had the opportunity to visit it, maybe you noticed that around the city there are some friendly dwarfs standing in the streets of the city.

Those dwarfs are everywhere and certainly they are one of the main touristic attractions of the city.

A Protest Full of Creativity

Many years ago back in the 80’s, Poland was still under the communism system and there was an Anti-communist Movement called ‘The Orange alternative’. They were known because of their creativity in complaining against this system.

One day they got an idea to face in a pacifist way the communism system and of course trying to avoid of being arrested by the police; the idea was to start painting dwarfs over the communism symbols that appeared around the city.

What Was the Result of That Protest?

A complete success! More and more dwarfs started to appear around the city.

In 2001, few years later after this peaceful movement, Wrocław city decided to commemorate The Orange Alternative by placing a Dwarf statue in the centre of the city (it is located on the crossroads of Świdnicka and Kazimierz Wielki Streets), this first statue is known as the Papa Dwarf.

A Great Polish Tradition

4 years later, the mayor of the city decided to continue the ‘dwarf’s tradition’ and he hired a famous artist to sculpt 5 dwarf statues that were placed in some touristic points of the city.

The small creatures started to gain popularity among the inhabitants of Wrocław, and people asked for more and more statues! It is believed that there are more than 300 dwarf statues around the city and this number is growing each year!

The dwarfs are the representation of different professions and every aspect of everyday life, for example you can find the veteran dwarf, the tourist dwarf, the baker dwarf, the aviator dwarf, or the educator dwarf.