From the 1930s until the Soviet Union ceased to exist, the only acceptable form of art in the USSR was socialist realism. Impossible to describe aesthetically, socialist realism embraced all the plastic arts from oil painting to buildings and was, somehow, meant to further the goals of Socialism and the working classes. The only socialist realist town in the EU, Nowa Huta was paid for by Stalin and was accordingly built to a socialist realist design. Essentially a huge concrete housing estate with Renaissance and Baroque concrete swirls splattered about, Nowa Huta would mean little to anyone who’s ever visited the Former Soviet Union, but to the uninitiated it offers a fabulous treat for the eyes. Of particular interest are the district’s central square, pl. Centraly, which dates from 1949 and is a masterpiece of Soviet social planning, the area immediately northeast around the grand al. Solidarności, and, at the far east of this road, the entrance to the former Lenin (now Sendzimir) Steelworks. On either side of the gates lie two huge concrete monstrosities built to echo the fine old buildings of Poland and called by the locals the Doge after the palace in Venice after which they’re supposed to resemble. Further to the west is the People's Theatre (Teatr Ludowy, os. Teatralne 34, tel. 012 680 21 12, www.ludowy.pl), a typically ridiculous building worth a look inside for its equally absurd chandeliers and other delusions of grandeur.