This paper examines the topic of changes in central parts of large cities in Poland that have occurred in the post-war period, which can be divided into two stages with different factors shaping urban space. The rebuilding of cities in Poland following destruction brought by WWII was one of the elements of building the socialist city. This process was frequently planned, often steered, unlike the dynamic processes initiated along with the political and socio-economic transformation of the 1990s, which took place already under market economy conditions. Three categories of city centres were distinguished according to the scope of rebuilding and the direction of post-war morphological changes: cities where changes were slight (Łódź, Kraków), partly reconstructed cities (Wrocław, Poznań), rebuilt and completely reconstructed cities (Gdańsk, Szczecin, Warszawa). In the post-war period, the city centres in question were characterized by diverse forms and scope of rebuilding of war damage, scale of expansion of the transport network, decline of the industrial function, development of large commercial complexes in the direct neighbourhood of the old centre, expansion of the office function and buildings and revitalization and revalorization of historical fabric.

The principal aim of this paper is to present the capabilities of newly developed GIS tools for measurement analysis of urban spatial layouts, using the square grid method. The study of urban morphology and metrology is a multistage process, which involves the metrological analysis of town plans. The main research step is the determination of measurement modules of town layouts, using the square grid. By using GIS software, the authors developed a new tool, named HGIS Tools, which allow to create any number of modular grids with the selected cell size that corresponds to urban units of distance and surface area. When investigating a large number of towns and cities, this offers a significant improvement of the research procedure. The paper presents a test of the tool’s potential on the example of regular medieval towns from the area of the former Teutonic Order state (currently the territory of Poland), diversified in terms of size, genesis and morphometrics. The obtained results confirmed that HGIS Tools allowed to determine the hypothetical measurement module of the layout of the cities studied. The results were consistent with the analyses of other authors carried out with the traditional grid-square methods. The test of the HGIS Tools showed their significant potential in conducting morphometric analyses of spatial arrangements of urban spatial layout on a larger scale.

World War II’s military activities and the post-war devastation period destroyed many European cities and towns. One of the areas that was struck the most was former East Prussia, currently located in Poland and the Kaliningrad Region (the Russian Federation). In addition to the destruction of cities, which are strategically and economically important, small towns have also suffered. An example of such a town is Węgorzewo, where the scale of destruction of the pre-war urban tissue exceeded 80%, and the old town’s built-up area practically ceased to exist. This town magnifies most of the processes and spatial problems characteristic of Central and Eastern Europe’s towns of the “metamorphic” type. Post-war zoning during the Polish People’s Republic period, in the spirit of constructing a socialist town and bypassing the original spatial arrangement, brought about irreversible changes in the urban tissue. This was reflected in the break with the town’s original layout and the creation of modernist buildings. The changes were solidified or even deepened during the economic and political transition of the 1990s in Poland. Today, decades after the end of World War II, despite taking corrective measures, the town is still facing the problem of spatial chaos. Its morphological and physiognomic manifestations in the lack of a central public space, the loss of its historic character, the disharmonization of the urban landscape, and the dispersed development are the main subjects of this article’s analysis. This study uses a diverse methodological apparatus consisting of an analysis of the town’s morphological transformations, an analysis of the physiognomy of the urban landscape and architecture, in situ studies, and an analysis of municipal documents and expert interviews. In the discussion, the study results are embedded in the context of the cases of other European cities and towns. The conclusions indicate the risks to the formation of spatial order in Węgorzewo and possible paths of action.

This research concerns the complex problem of morphological transformations of villages in the intra-urban area (i.e. settlements incorporated into acity), as well as the suburban area, using the example of the metropolitan area of Łódź, Poland. The main aim of the research was to analyse the diversity of selected rural settlements and their spatial changes after World War II.. The study was based on preserved historical maps and today’s plans. An analysis of morphological changes of selected villages was conducted using graph theory methods. It was noticed that the graph development index should depend on the relative number of edges in relation to the number of nodes and the number of graph cycles, which express the degree of complexity of a settlement unit. Three main groups of villages, characterised by different scales of morphological transformations, were distinguished as a result of the study. Settlement units with orthomorphic transformations, where all spatial modifications were mainly additive and the initial layouts have been preserved almost completely, represent the first group of villages. The second group is composed of units with semi-metamorphic transformations, where the spatial reorganization was significant, but not total. The third group includes villages with metamorphic changes, where the initial layouts have been totallytransformed.

W artykule dokonano próby określenia przemian przestrzennych małego miasta, jakim jest Nowy Staw na Żuławach Wiślanych. Wydzielono okresy w rozwoju morfologicznym i funkcjonalnym oraz zaprezentowano najważniejsze determinanty, które miały wpływ na jego fizjonomię i morfologię. Nowy Staw ma genezę średniowieczną i od wieków odgrywał istotną rolę gospodarczą w delcie Wisły. Przede wszystkim była to rola handlowa i obsługi lokalnego zaplecza rolniczego. Pełnione funkcje znalazły swoje odzwierciedlenie w infrastrukturze, fizjonomii i rozplanowaniu przestrzennym. O specyfice miasta świadczą m.in.: zachowany lokacyjny układ przestrzenny, gotycka fara i ewangelicki zbór, zabudowa mieszkalna z XIX i XX w., zabytkowe obiekty przemysłowe oraz wiejskie zagrody. Ta mozaika nawarstwień historycznych, widoczna w postaci współczesnego krajobrazu kulturowego, nie została całkowicie zniszczona w wyniku drugiej wojny światowej ani powojennego okresu inwestycji komunalnych. Stanowi cenne dziedzictwo przeszłości, ale również potencjał i wyróżnik kulturowy miasta. Przemiany funkcjonalne, fizjonomii i przestrzeni, obserwowane w Nowym Stawie w ostatnich kilkunastu latach, w znacznym stopniu odzwierciedlają charakterystyczne cechy funkcjonowania małych miast w Polsce okresu transformacji. Wszystko to, w połączeniu z ciekawymi dziejami politycznymi, powoduje, że Nowy Staw stanowi niezwykle interesujący przedmiot badawczy dla geografii osadnictwa i geografii historycznej.