In search of a pattern for historic centres reconstruction: urban morphology of post-war cities of the Recovered Territories, Poland

The study presents the results from an analysis of the various forms of the post-war reconstruction of several of the largest historical city centres in the Recovered Territories which were joined to Poland after the Second World War. We propose an original mixed qualitative and quantitative method for studying the built-up areas over the period covering the war and up to the present. We selected four types of transformation patterns depending on the scale of destruction as well as the sort of reconstruction that was adopted. These include: areas in which modernist architecture predominates; historical areas; areas with retroversion and with dominance of the original, pre-war buildings. The models which have been identified differ each from the others in terms of the present role of the old town area, as well as the scale and character of morphological changes. Given the significant research gap in Polish post-war studies, our research contributes to a better understanding of city transformation process and impact of its changes on present shape of historic urban centres.