Wzgórze Gajowickie, Wrocław

Gajowickie Hill - an artificially created hill on the Gajowice estate in Wrocław. Formed in 1928-1932 as a reclamation of the city garbage dump. It is located along the railroad Freight Ring Road of Wroclaw. It is part of Hugo Richter Promenade, which is an important element of the network of pedestrian and bicycle routes in the city.

Gajowickie Hill is commonly called by the city's inhabitants Pafawag Hill from the nearby no longer existing stadium of the Pafawag Wrocław club, whose patron was the State Wagon Factory. The German name derives from the patron of the street, which ended at the hill: Hardenbergstrasse.

Initially, in the early years of the twentieth century, a landfill was located at this site, then on the outskirts of Wroclaw. The landfill was active here for fifteen years; each year about 40 thousand cubic meters of municipal waste was brought here from twenty districts of the city. The total amount of waste accumulated here is more than 600 thousand cubic meters. The plans to build multi-family housing estates in the Gajowice area resulted in closing the dump in the 1920s and subjecting it to a recultivation process. After the reclamation, the hill became a recreational facility for the residents of the southern settlements of the city. In winter it was and is used as a toboggan hill.

The establishment of this green area was connected with the development of urban compositions of nearby housing estates: Grabiszyn and the housing estate by Kwaśnym Źródło as well as the Sports Park Grabiszyn. The sports grounds and the hill were to constitute a sports and recreational complex, complementing the recreational programme for this part of Wrocław.

Thanks to the efforts of local residents together with the Gajowice Housing Estate Council in 2016-2020, works were carried out as part of the Wrocław civic budget aimed at restoring the place to its former glory. All walking and cycling alleys were renovated, the area was illuminated, there is an off-road gym and a small street workout set, small architecture devices were placed - benches and trash garbage cans. Management of Urban Greenery planted young trees and shrubs in the whole area.

Gajowickie Hill is intended to serve as a recreation and resting place for the inhabitants. It is a good vantage point, offering a panoramic view of the Sudeten Foreland, but above all of the neighbouring districts of Wroclaw.

Further plans for the site include: construction of a mountain approach and terrain stairs with seating on the side of Krucza Street, further work on revitalizing the lawns, reconstruction of the main toboggan run into the shape of a slightly rounded gutter.