Traditional 'dwarf hunting' game of Poles attracts great attention of tourists

WROCLAW, POLAND - OCTOBER 01: Tourists visiting the Polish city of Wrocław enjoy a fun game while strolling through the historic streets.Wrocław is a Polish city that is home to statues of hundreds of anti-communist dwarfs.The city, founded upon twelve islands and surrounded by rivers and canals, is also known as the Poland's Venice or the Polish Venice.While visitors to this beautiful city enjoy visiting historical places, they also play the traditional "dwarf hunting game" and enter into a fun competition with their friends.Visitors try to find and photograph over 400 small dwarf statues placed in various parts of the city, with a population of 650,000, with the help of maps and guides.This beautiful event is attended not only by tourists but also by local people who want to have fun with their friends with a lovely weekend activity.Wrocław’s dwarfs have first emerged as graffiti portraits in the early 1980s against the Poland’s oppressive communist regime's censorship of free speech and public gatherings.This peacefully protest of a group led by an artist at the University of Wrocław, in a short time, turned into a trend against communist propaganda and spread all over the country.Thus, Wrocław’s funny dwarfs have become one of the symbols of anti-Soviet resistance movement.After the collapse of communism in Poland, Wroclaw Municipality decided to erect a dwarf statue in the center of the city to commemorate this movement in 2001.A few years after the statue called "Papa Dwarf" was erected, a lot of Polish artists started making small dwarf statues and placing them in the streets of the city.Hereby, finding and photographing dwarf statues, whose numbers exceeded 400 in a short time, has become a funny and cultural activity. (Footage by Omer Tugrul Cam/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)