Nowa Huta (pronounced [ˈnɔva ˈxuta], literally "The New Mill") is the easternmost district of Kraków, Poland.

Nowa Huta is one of the largest planned socialist realist settlements or districts ever built (another being Magnitogorsk in Russia) and "one of the most renowned examples of deliberate social engineering" in the entire world.

[2] Built as a utopian ideal city, its street hierarchy, layout and certain grandeur of buildings often resemble Paris or London.

One can find historic Austro-Hungarian fortresses there, as well as one of Europe's oldest permanent airfields (Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny Airport, currently housing the Polish Aviation Museum).

To "correct the class imbalance", the authorities commenced building a satellite industrial city to attract people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to the region, such as peasants and the working-class.

[4] Nowa Huta was created in 1949 as a separate city near Kraków, on terrain repossessed by the Socialist government from the former villages of Mogiła, Pleszów and Krzesławice.

[4] On 22 July 1954 the Vladimir Lenin Steelworks was opened, and in less than twenty years, the factory became the largest steel mill in Poland.

Kraków was a center of learning, with established schools of engineering and scientific research departments, providing the necessary expertise along with qualified staff.

The presence of good railway links for bringing raw materials and the proximity of the river to supply water also played a role.

[6][7] In line with the then policy of state atheism, one significant type of building lacking from the original urban design of Nowa Huta was a Roman Catholic church.

[9] The locals were supported by then Bishop Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, who began hosting outdoor Christmas Eve Midnight Masses in 1959, regardless of weather, and replaced the cross every time that it was removed.

Since the style of the Renaissance was generally regarded as the most revered in old Polish architecture, it was also intended to become Poland's socialist national format.

One of these was to more closely reflect Soviet architecture, which resulted in the majority of works blending into one another; and finally, the general acceptance of the classicist form.

[citation needed] Nowa Huta's central "Avenue of Roses" featured a nationally known statue of Vladimir Lenin, unveiled on 28 April 1973.

Other streets were renamed after Edward Rydz-Śmigły and Ignacy Mościcki, politicians of the pre-World War II Sanation government.

[38] It has hosted notable events such as the 1960 Poland versus England international that attracted a crowd of 25,000 and a qualifying round of the Speedway World Team Cup in 1964.