Oliwa

Another day, another rain cloud in Gdansk. The town centre is beautiful, characterised by pretty 17th century houses with heavy German and Dutch influences, the cobbled streets are a haven for tourists of every nationally, a welcome change in aesthetic after the austere utilitarianism of the Polish capital. It is particularly popular with the Poles and the Germans as the pretty coastal town has long been the subject of territorial disputes between these neighbouring countries.

While we were quite happy ducking in and out of the rain while exploring the old Town we have taken a disappointing number of photos since our arrival, mostly due to the patchy weather. In addition we don't feel we have managed to catch the true spirit of the town which has an impressive local population of close to half a million, being easily distracted by the fripperies of the thriving tourist industry.

However we have come to take photos of contemporary Poland and that is what we shall do, so in the afternoon we headed to the local suburb of Oliwa to seek out the Mosque, which serves the small Tartar population of Gdansk. This is a strange subject for a photographic study in Poland, a notorious bastion of Catholicism, however it is the marginal nature of Islam in Poland that sparked our interest.

The Islamic Tartar population numbers only five to seven thousand of Poland's forty million and is organised around six main religious communities. The Gdansk mosque was built in the early nineties, one of the first purpose built Mosques in the country. Although architecturally insignificant it represents an important aspect of Polish culture given the recent challenges which Islam has faced across Europe and beyond.

The Tartar Mosque in Oliwa



Ghetto Kay.



Kay found one of her brethren in the park.