Memory and Loss

Sammanfattning: Szczecin is a city in a western Poland which after WW II was damaged, lost its identity and inhabitants. Polish-German border was moved to the west of Oder river. Most of Pomerania, including Szczecin was eventually given to Poland. About 90 precent of the city centre was damaged, bombings took away city’s identity.According to Rossi the city is always considered as a man-made object and the past will always be partly experienced and gives meaning to permanence.So I wondered how much of past is still present in Szczecin? The wounds healed after many years, but what is there left of the city that it used to be?During analyse of city urban structure I found public buildings that were demolished and  forgotten  and  reconstructed  them  from  pictures,  as  pictures  are  the  only  evi-dence of their presence.In Szczecin today there is no theather building, no exhibition hall in the centre, no synagogue building, no panoramic cinema and no public transportation office which is also a public space.Frgaments of memories brought together in one place  are forming the memorial of the city’s past fulfilling the gap between the past and present.Not many of city’s inhabitants know about the fact that the city used to have theatre in  the  place  where  where  now  highway  enters  the  city  centre,  panorama  viewing  building in the park, exhibition hall surrounded by townhouses, public transportation office next to city’s central transportation hub or a synagogue in a place where the library is.