What is Socialist Realism

The goal of the chapter is to draw attention to the need to preserve selected examples of architecture built in 1945-1991 in the European Union countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The meanings assigned to the objects evolve, and along with social changes and changing awareness, architectural and urban value of the buildings from this period is more and more often noticed. Consequently, growth of their significance for development of tourism can be expected. On the other hand, they often constitute a dissonant heritage, and thus, more and more of them are demolished. This chapter presents the concept of dissonant heritage and justifies the relationships between characterised architecture. Attention is focused on the relationships between the need to protect it and the concept of sustainable development (including sustainable tourism). Examples of cities that have relatively big resources of this architecture are identified, and an attempt to classify them is made. Then tourist offer of these cities is analysed with respect to the use of the discussed architecture.