Wroclaw, City of Gnomes

Wroclaw, Poland is pronounced "Vrats-love." It is a charming city with a river, lots of beautiful churches, and over 70 small metal gnomes in strange and unpredictable places. Pictured here they are in the old town square, at the post office above a mailbox, and at the steps of a huge church. According to the Lonely Planet guide, they were an initiative of the Orange Alternative, "a communist-era dissident group that used ridicule as a weapon." They placed gnomes where graffiti has been removed by the authorities and no one could arrest someone for owning and placing gnomes. There is no guide to their whereabouts -you just come upon them as a reward for the attentive tourist.