Wroclawskie krasnale

The Wroclaw dwarfs (krasnale) are small bronze figures scattered across the city, each in its own pose, often busy with a tiny prop or trade. They trace back to the Orange Alternative, an anti-communist protest movement active in Wroclaw in the 1980s. Finding them has become one of the city's favourite pastimes. See the Wroclaw guide for the wider city.

The dwarfs turn a walk around the centre into a hunt. They are small, usually knee-high or lower, and tucked at doorways, on windowsills and beside lamp posts. Spotting them appeals to children, and the story behind them gives adults a real slice of the city's recent history. It costs nothing and works alongside the main sights.

The Orange Alternative used a cartoon dwarf as its symbol in the 1980s, painting the figure over official slogans and staging absurd street happenings to mock the communist authorities. A monument to the movement, known as Papa Krasnal, was put up on Swidnicka Street in 2001. From the mid-2000s the city began adding small bronze dwarfs around the streets, and the collection has kept growing into the hundreds and beyond.

Most of the best-known dwarfs cluster in and around the Market Square and the Old Town. They are small and easy to miss, so look low, at kerb level and by shop entrances. Maps and apps that plot the figures are widely available if you want to tick off a set route.

There is no fixed visit. Many people simply notice them while sightseeing. Give it an hour or two if you want to make a deliberate hunt around the centre with children.

Daylight is easiest for spotting the small figures. The Old Town is quietest in the early morning, which makes photographing them without crowds simpler.

The densest cluster is in the pedestrian Old Town around the Market Square, reachable on foot or by tram to the edge of the centre.

The dwarfs sit at ground level along the same cobbled Old Town streets as the main sights, which are uneven in places. There is nothing to enter or climb.

The hunt centres on the Market Square. From there the river and Tumski Bridge lead toward Cathedral Island, where you can carry on spotting figures along the way.

They grew out of the Orange Alternative, a 1980s protest movement that used a dwarf as its symbol against the communist authorities. The bronze figures now honour that history while drawing visitors around the city.

There are many hundreds, and the number keeps growing as new figures are added, so any exact count is out of date quickly.