Paper short abstract:

Zdrój is an area of dilemmas characteristic to post-transformation societies. Local memory in Zdrój reaches the tradition of a former elite mountain spa town. However, transition has brought an erosion of the state`s position leaving the space open for new, yet contested discourses and practices.

Paper long abstract:

Zdrój is a mountain spa town in southern Poland. Patients, attracted by curative waters and unique microclimate, have been visiting the place for more than two centuries. The first ethnographic encounters and experiences revealed, that Zdrój is a complex area of social dilemmas and interactions characteristic to post-transformation societies of Central Europe. The sociocultural memory in Zdrój is anchored the “invented tradition” of a former elite spa town. The remains of it can be traced in local discourses, architectural heritage (villas, baths) and in the town`s composition reflecting social stratification.

Nowadays, Zdrój suffers from the effects of transition, namely environmental and social degradation, limited job opportunities, and labour migrations. After 1896, the town rapidly moved from the (mono)culture of healing and modern recreational landscape controlled by the state, to the scattered culture of a free market focused exploitation – not elite, nor healing. Centralized model of managing local resources and associated sociocultural meanings has been discarded. A good example of this is the local water, which, as we have learned, once a collective good and social actor attached to the place and its community, currently has been commoditizated and handed over private hands.

After completing the project in 2020, we still consider this process as non-finished. Nevertheless, we understand, that transition has brought to Zdrój massive changes in social relations and local memory. Gradual erosion of the state`s position has left the space open for new discourses, yet the latter often being contested and rejected by the local community.