This time the desire to explore the Unknown Wroclaw brought us to Dąbie tram depot at Wróblewskiego street. Out of all such buildings in Wroclaw, it is considered to be the most beautiful, cosy and with amazing atmosphere. It was the last chance to see how it looks during a typical working day. Soon the Municipal Transport Company (Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne, MPK) will begin a relocation of this historic property, and it will change its character. There is a plan to create an academic centre in this engineering monument, so that it becomes a place for spending free time and organising cultural events for the students, but that is not all.
A centenarian in a residential district On the spot we are greeted by Krzysztof Statkiewicz, a long-term depot supervisor. He will be our guide. He tells us about the history and contemporary times of the building, and it is over a hundred years old. The depot was created along with the opening of the Centennial Hall (Hala Stulecia), when the magistrate decided to extend the oldest tram line remembering the times of travelling on horses, to Dąbie district. This district, prestigious, quiet and surrounded by trees, forced the designers to create a building of an incredible architectural value. Therefore a non-plastered brick (apart from ferroconcrete) was used for building this engineering monument. The roofs were mostly covered with glass in order to be able to work with natural light. However, today the modern skylights no longer serve their function."Such construction made it difficult to keep the heat in the buildings, so it was rebuilt, and some of the windows were covered. Another roof which insulates from the cold was built from inside", explains Krzysztof Statkiewicz.
The magic of lights attracts film-makers We enter the first of the halls through a small door at a high gate. On tracks over repair pits there are blue trams which are inspected, renovated or repaired. Other trams are riding with passengers. There are direction boards hanging on special racks on the walls which will later appear in the trams. Despite many alterations, the hall of the building has its original atmosphere. We are not the only ones to appreciate the play of light and shadows, the smell of a garage and cruddy brick. Amazing fashion photo shoots were held here, movies were filmed and photo reportages and TV programmes were created.
"The depot also serves its function all the time, and architectural solutions invented over a hundred years ago are still working", says our guide. We go through the garages to the second hall. Tram carriages are repaired here, and the pantographs are regenerated: checked, lubricated and cleaned. We have to go through one more small doors and we enter the next hall from the rear. It is even more beautiful, as if we went back in time. There are restored trams on the tracks. Each one is amazing in its own way. "The sightseeing trams 'Baba Jaga', 'Mikołaj', 'Juliusz' and 'Jaś i Małgosia' are stationing here. Behind them there is a historical technical vehicle, which is still used by the Municipal Transport Company (Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne, MPK)", says Krzysztof Statkiewicz. The light is coming through the doors and windows and in the puddles there are reflections of the elements of the building structure. The repaired carts are standing in the corner and waiting for the mount. There are also elevators and pantographs. Above us, on steel ribs, there is a chain of hanging parallel lamps.
History at every step It's time to go, because there is a lot to see outside. We are going behind the buildings of the depot to holding tracks. They are dead ends and do not encircle the hall, so every morning and evening the trams ready for the route and returning from one have to be arranged properly. So that they set off to their stops in good order. The tracks are almost empty, there are only two trams near the fence. Old trams. One of them is the vehicle of the Association of Public Transport Fans (Towarzystwo Miłośników Komunikacji Miejskiej). The second one is a technical vehicle of the Municipal Transport Company (Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne, MPK), which served as a plough and cleaned the tracks from snow. This is where we slowly finish our trip. We walk across the square depot where we see the signs of past at every step: original railway poles, old German frog or stop posts from decades ago.
Janusz Krzeszowski
