Nowa Huta
One of the best sights I saw on my Krakow visit was an afternoon trip to Nowa Huta, less than 30 minutes tram ride from the train station. It's apparently one of only two Socialist Realism master-planned towns in the world, the other being Magnitogorsk in the Urals of Russia.
It was constructed as a counterpoint to the middle class, cultured Krakow, designed to house a working class population that would work in heavy industry.
This turned out to be the Vladimir Lenin Steelworks, such a major sight that Fidel Castro visited it on his one visit to Poland, instead of the main square. The location of the Steelworks in Nowa Huta was not based on logistical concerns, as the coal had to be imported from Silesia (where I visited a few days later), and its customers were not located in the region. It's now the Sendzimir Steelworks, named after the Polish creator of galvanized steel process, and owned by ArcelorMittal.
Nowa Huta's streets are wide, to better contain the spread of fire, and the abundant trees were supposed to absorb the blast from a nuclear bomb.
There are two museums here focused on life during the Communist times. One is the Nowa Huta Museum, which was closed when I went, even though the schedule said it would be open. The other is the PRL Museum, which is focused on life during the Communist time but in Poland overall. It had a surprisingly in depth exhibit on soccer culture, and it was fun being pretty much the only visitor in the museum after all of the crowds in the older parts of Krakow. Here's a living room recreation of viewing a soccer match, in the museum.
