See if you can spot the tiny bronze statue of a dwarf resting on the ground, just to the west of the Hansel & Gretel houses. A few metres away you’ll spot firefighter dwarves, rushing to put out a blaze. These figures are part of a collection of over 300 scattered through the city. Though whimsical, they’re also a reference to the symbol of the Orange Alternative, a communist-era dissident group that used ridicule as a weapon.
They’re sometimes identified in English as gnomes, as the Polish folkloric character they're based on (the leprechaun-like krasnoludek) resembles a traditional British garden gnome. Buy a 'dwarf map' (6zł) from the tourist office (or view it on the website) and go dwarf-spotting.