Urban exploring - city - heritage - identity

This article presents the urban exploring movement, which, in spite of being regarded as quite controversial, is gaining more and more popularity in Poland as well as all over the world. It is an urban cultural movement operating on the border of legality, which is often mistaken for vandalism. If one were to consider the phenomenon from the perspective of culture studies, it should be seen in broader terms, with all its positive aspects. Urban explorers document their work with the use of photographs, historical descriptions and maps of places which are usually not taken into account by people and authorities responsible for heritage. The explorers facilitate the act of preservation of cultural and historical memory and popularization of heritage, which is usually beyond the reach of tourists. It, however, presents a more complete picture of humans and their civilization as well as the history of a given place