Nowa Huta steelworks was erected on the most fertile soil of Middle Poland. The Steelworks and the surrounding city were the embodiment of Polish Socialism. The working class fraternity which came to Nowa Huta from all over Poland were easily influenced by the ideology. The newly erected town was to act as a counter balance to neighboring Krakow which was full of the intelligentsia. Nowa Huta was to be a town where God and religion did not exist. However, religious faith became the strongest bond which united the inhabitants of the district. They forced the erection of the first church. Then, twenty years later, when Solidarity was born Nowa Huta became one of the strongholds of opposition to the regime. After the political system had been changed the inhabitants, who for decades had everything provided for them – from work to the way they spent their leisure, fared poorly indeed. Mass sackings from the Steelworks (the main employer in the district) started on big scale. In the new economic reality which followed the inhabitants had to painfully learn to make prudent and independent choices for themselves.