Photo no. 1. Biała river just flowing into Poland and into Głuchołazy.
Photo no. 2. Bridge over Biała in the centre of Głuchołazy.
Photo no. 3. Downstream view from the bridge in Głuchołazy.
Photo no. 4. St. Laurent's church in Głuchołazy.
Photo no. 5. A gothic gate tower in Głuchołazy.
Photo no. 6. A tributary of Biała.
Photo no. 7. Bodzanów - first locality downstream from Głuchołazy.
Photo no. 8. Bodzanów - the "industrial centre".
Photo no. 9. Bodzanów - the "industrial centre" again.
Photo no. 10. Bodzanów - river Biała.
Photo no. 11. Bodzanów - again Biała.
Photo no. 12. Bodzanów - Biała again.
Photo no. 13. Bodzanów - bottom of Biała.
Photo no. 14. Nowy ¦więtów - another village downstream.
Photo no. 15. Nowy ¦więtów - the centre.
Photo no. 16. Nowy ¦więtów - the centre.
Photo no. 17. The river starts to ramify.
Photo no. 18. Przełęk - the river becomes wild.
Photo no. 19. Przełęk - the confluence.
Photo no. 20. Przełęk - the confluence again.
Photo no. 21. Przełęk - the destroyed infrastructure.
Photo no. 22. Morów - a village on a tributary.
Photo no. 23. Morów - the place of the inundations.
Photo no. 24. Nysa - the capital of the area.
Photo no. 25. Nysa - the centre.
Photo no. 26. Nysa - the Cathedral.
Photo no. 27. Nysa - historical monuments.
Photo no. 28. Nysa - the contrasts.
Photo no. 29. Nysa - the centre.
Photo no. 30. Nysa - the centre.
Photo no. 31. Nysa - water levels.
Photo no. 32. Nysa - the city moat.
Photo no. 33. Nysa - the city moat.
Photo no. 34. Prudnik - the city hall.
Photo no. 35. Prudnik - the centre.
Photo no. 36. Prudnik - a gate to the city.
Outskirts of Głuchołazy - some few hundred metres away from the border. To the left - the Polish part of the Opava Mountains, here a kind of municipal park (locally peaking with Parkowa [Park] Mt.), with the rests of gold mines of the 14th -16th centuries (two biggest nuggets are kept in the Rudolph II treasury in Vienna), a spa, and an interesting religious installation of Via Crucis.
Now, after a few windings through Głuchołazy (mainly through the industrial areas) the river flows under the “central” bridge. Looks tidy and tame, indeed, with the walls and well-kept channel.
Confirms the impression from the preceding photograph.
Late medieval town, once a true industrial centre, Głuchołazy makes now the main urban place within the Polish part of the proper Biała-Bela basin, with some industry still persisting - or even developing (furniture finishing, pulp and paper, paints, hydraulic implements), and a spa, as well as cultural activities.
Another glimpse of historical Głuchołazy.
This one, a right-bank tributary (an upstream view from a bridge), joins Biała in downtown Głuchołazy. Do not be misled by its well-groomed channel (luckily, you do not see the details of waste on this picture). It also flows down from the Opava mountains and can swell in minutes to a true river.
Centre of village, with several typical, if not symbolic features (southward view). Along the axis of this street village a characteristic floodplain ditch stretches (the greenbelt in between the roads).
A view on a part of the late baroque Jesuit compound across the bridge on the running leat (mill-race) stream.
Taken from the same place as the previous photo, this one shows the leat and the bridge on it (along with your humble reporter's vehicle), and THE factory (now, after few centuries of continuing change, another hydraulic appliances plant).
Not quite a kilometre from Bodzanów (here with a view on the religious and industrial centre) the river Biała flows calmly, very much like in Głuchołazy, just few kilometres downstream from Photos no. 2 and 3.
View upstream (southwards) from the bridge - towards Głuchołazy and the mountains.
View downstream (northwards) from the bridge.
Mineralogists - guess what (and who's shadow is there?).
Yet few kilometres downstream from Bodzanów. Again the middle-of-the-street-village ditch. As usual here, in the middle of the floodplain, it carries quite some water, and can indeed help in alleviating the swells.
Next to the road and the ditch in the middle - the stone construction of the early Gothic church.
Surprise, surprise: the stone Gothic church has become just a lateral nave of an 18th century structure.
The series of medieval villages includes the subsequent one - Polski ¦więtów, which we are not showing here.
Downstream from Bodzanów, for a variety of reasons, the river starts to branch out, leaving abandoned loops and secondary channels.
In Przełęk, some three kilometres downstream of Polski ¦więtów, the image of the river and its bed is completely changed (upstream view).
Some 50 metres downstream from the previous place. A confluence of the main and the secondary channel. No longer a tame and calm stream.
Downstream from the same place as before. A calm river again?
One of the reasons? The ruins of a mill that has been working in Przełęk until the early 1970s, resisting the communist struggle against the private enterprise. The leat has become dry and non-functional, the ponds were destroyed.
A small left-bank tributary of Biała, the creek of Morka, having its sources, as well, on the Czech side of the border, drains the western part of the basin. Here the upstream view in the village of Morów, the place inundated several times a year.
This image was taken downstream from almost the same place as the preceding one. You can see the ford and a small bridge (built with the financial contribution of the European Communities). To the right, behind the fence, is the house, whose inhabitants serve as the "flood vigils": their house is licked by the waves after every bigger rainfall. The person in the picture is Ms. Teresa Wilk, the marshal of the village.
The inhabitants insist that the (flash) floods have become more frequent since their childhood, that is - during the last few decades.
Although located slightly outside of the proper basin, Nysa is definitely the main urban centre of the area (Głuchołazy following closely enough). Here the view from the old market square (the town was almost entirely destroyed during the World War II) on Sts. James and Anne's church ("the Cathedral").
Another view on the Cathedral. Nysa has been an important centre since the Middle Ages as the capital of the Silesian duchy of the archbishops from Wrocław (Breslau). Therefrom a number of historical institutions of religious, cultural and educational character, which seem to be out of scale with the nowadays Nysa.
The brick-and-stone interior of the Cathedral.
One of the institutions no longer properly maintained by the existing "socio-economic order": the grandiose baroque Sts. Peter and Paul's church and monastery of the Order of the Sepulchre.
Another monument, definitely less grandiose (and newer), facing the church of Sts. Peter and Paul.
A glimpse into a street next to the bishop's palace and the Jesuit college.
A view from the same place as before, towards the core of the Jesuit educational compound (college, gymnasium, seminar). The elegant moat ditch in the middle of the picture is indeed worth attention (see next photograph, showing a detail of the portal on the left side, here in the shade).
The portal of the gymnasium shows the levels of water during the main floods during the last 300 years. Note the highest level, recorded in 1997.
The proper city moat (now turned into a park implement) runs in parallel to the previously shown one, quite around the city. Although we are just outside of the Biała [Głuchołaska] basin, the floods are very much the same.
The moat fits well into the historical setting of the downtown. You do not see here the (rests of the) water infrastructure on the moat (weirs and dams).
Located outside of the pilot basin (a couple of kilometres away from its boundary), Prudnik is nevertheless the seat of the Polish part of the Praded (Pradziad) ["Grand-grand-father"] Euroregion, which encompasses the entire pilot region.
A view on the downtown of Prudnik, another medieval locality in the area.
A view on the city and one of its medieval gate towers.
