Kuniów, Opole, Poland

Kuniow lies in south west Poland in the Woiwodschaft Opole and is part of the municipality of Kluczbork. The village is situated in the relatively flat, sandy lowlands of a tributary of the Oder and is favoured by a mild climate. The population has sunk since the „soft revolution“ in 2000 to today’s 1,085. The emigration took place due to jobs, at the moment approx. 200 people have their secondary residence in Kuniow so that the population is actually less than 900.

The continual village renewal process has been going on for five years with intensive citizen participation and has acclamation and foundation in the higher planning levels and institutions. The focuses are the explication of its own values and goals and the conservation and maintenance of traditional trades in combination with an adventure and educational tourist bias which is supported by many clubs reaching across all generations also with over regional functions and networks.

The often unconventional ideas come form the protagonists with a view to the future taking into consideration current trends and developments. So for example, on a railway line that is used only now temporarily for freight traffic a handcar was used and advertised as an adventure experience as well as in combination with agro-tourism.

The heart of Kuniów is the “Culture House”, an active school for school children up to the 8th grade that has opened up and offers room for kindergarten, youth and citizen work. It acts as a generation spanning centre for education, meetings and support and as a platform for the development of ideas. In the “Culture House” there are the adventure tourist attractions a blacksmith, a bakery, a bike route that is 122 kilometres long and in the future also a local history room.

It is a noteworthy fact that Kuniów is host for a kind of “village renewal tourism”. Protagonists from other villages and regions see the village as a prime example and come here to get impulses for conserving identity and values of their own village.

The goal of the development of farming is the conservation and transfer of many small farms with partly intensive production to the next generation. However it seems in the current structures that the long term sustainability is subject to a certain risk in front of the background of the emerging basic conditions of agricultural policies.

Focusing on the construction and settlement building elements and the formulation of goals and qualities for settlement expansion are seen as a great challenge. Positive results can definitely be expected if it is possible to understand the built up environment in its entirety as a cultural asset and to further development it in the sense of a rural, location specific building culture.

The village Kuniów will have a future despite the difficult conditions at the beginning and the exceeding tasks that it has to accomplish because – it remains true to itself. It fascinates with realistic and at the same time visionary ideas and already implemented network projects as well as the personal exertion and the committed stirring momentum of its citizens.

Evaluated: 2008