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Where did the dwarves come from in Wroclaw
No one has yet given a convincing and certain answer to the title question of where dwarves actually came from in Wroclaw. The dispute between historians, journalists and ordinary Wroclaw residents, which has been going on for years, still has not come to an end – and probably never will.
It has become popular in some circles to believe that it was the city authorities who brought the gnomes to Wroclaw to help the citizens deal with the Oder goblin, which was making life miserable for the residents, and which one day moored its raft in one of the canals and started playing tricks on everyone. However, the goblin drifted away, while the gnomes settled for good in the underground part of the city.
Others claim that the arrival of dwarves to Wroclaw is related to Major Fydrych’s Orange Alternative, active in the 1980s. It’s not unlikely that the happening movement, which contested the authorities of the time by means of parody, laughter and satire, benefited from the support of gnomes when organizing its actions, as thanks to their small size they passed through the city streets much more freely. Hence one of the symbols of the Orange Alternative – the figure of a dwarf appearing on walls.
In turn, the last of the most popular theories is that not anyone else, but just gnomes were the first inhabitants of the land of Wroclaw. That they lived here from the very beginning, as always helping people in their daily work (on the farm, growing crops, stitching up torn sacks, and so on…). The centuries-old tradition of coexistence between people and dwarves is evidenced by today’s names of some Wroclaw settlements, derived in a straight line from the names of gnomes living in the city (Sępolno from Sępik, Biskupin from Biskupek, and Szczepin from Szczepik).
Either way, the fact is that over the years dwarves have become part of the city’s landscape for good, growing to become one of its symbols. No wonder, because the population of gnomes is growing at an extraordinary pace: today in Wroclaw we can meet more than 350 dwarves, and each year dozens more are added. Most of them live in the center of the city, but they are increasingly appearing on the outskirts as well. Therefore, when visiting the capital of Lower Silesia, be sure to look around and watch your step, who knows if one of Wrocław’s gnomes might run between your legs!