It was built in the fifties by the communist rulers of Stalinist Poland. The governing intention of the project was to build Nowa Huta as a model communist town and a counterbalance to the conservative and bourgeois Cracow. It was built on a plan that was nearly an exact copy of the spatial plan of the Royal Versailles! From the central square wide avenues spread out with monumental social realist blocks between them, the main avenue used to lead to a statue of Lenin which has since been pulled down. Next to the model town a huge steel works was constructed. Nowadays the place attracts many curious tourists eager to find out about the “charming” life of the socialist haven.