Stadion Garbarni
July 27, 2019
I have never heard about Garbarnia before I moved to Krakow. I thought that the third team of Krakow must be Hutnik, but turns out Garbarnia has more history. It was a successful side in the 20s and 30s of the last century. Garbarnia even won a Polish championship title in 1931 but then it fell into obscurity after the war.
The club represents the district of Krakow called Ludwinow. The old tannery was located there and
that’s what the name of the team actually means. Garbarnia used to play right on the bank of Wisla,
overlooking Wavel castle but then their stadium was demolished to make way for the super brutalist
concrete hotel that is abandoned now. Oh how I wish I could watch a game there. Instead, Garbarnia got a plot of land in their native Ludwinow in 1990 and now it’s a very small and modest-looking stadium with just a single stand. Last year Garbarnia got promoted to the 2nd tier of Polish football and had to play in Wisla stadium. I did not want to see a game in a huge empty stadium with just a hundred people or so, and that’s how I decided to watch a reserve or a youth team in their actual ground. But then Garbarnia went down after just one season and could play at their home ground again.
So the game was advertised as a homecoming. Unfortunately, there was a tragedy before the game,
where the keeper of the youth team died in some kind of a drowning accident and there was a
dedicated minute of silence.
As I said, the stadium is basically just one partially covered stand and an office building with a big
Garbarnia crest. The rest is just empty space, a training field to the right and a big construction site. It’s close to my place, right about 40 minutes on foot. In fact, I passed the stadium many times
without even realizing. Moreover, I did not even know where the entrance was. There are a few newly- built apartment buildings around and some of the people decided to watch the game from their balconies. In fact, you can easily watch it for free from behind the fence without paying 15 zloty.
The stand was almost full. I guess that’s because it was the first game of the season. As always wish
polish grounds, there was a small spot for grilling kielbasy. But also, there was something completely
different about this game. The atmosphere was super friendly and relaxed. There were a lot of older
people, who probably supported the club since they were kids. The tiny contingent of Garbarnia ultras were just regular dudes with scarves. No intimidating faces, no shaved heads, no angry chants. The main Ultra fan with a megaphone was just simply enjoying himself, dancing with the beat of the drum and cracking jokes. In fact, I don’t even know if Garbarnia has enemies amongst other fans. The visitors had about 20 or so fans belted out their chant 1 or 2 times, but mostly were just watching the game in relaxed silence.
The game was far from being exciting. Gornik scored quite quickly after the home team mistake. I can’t recall any other chances from either team. As expected at such a level, there was too much struggle and not enough quality.
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