The history of neon signage in Warsaw goes back to the 1920s. By 1933 more than 70 signs existed, most to be destroyed during World War II. A renaissance occurred during the Cold War, when the colorful lighting offered a state-sanctioned opportunity to brighten a still blighted city.
Neon and bars go together like scotch and soda, or rum and coke.
We crossed the Vistula River to visit the Neon Museum, traveling by tram through neighborhoods of Soviet-era blocks of drab apartment buildings.
The ramshackle interior feels a bit like a barn. There's the Warsaw mermaid in the rear.
The museum rescued many of the signs from the 1960s and 1970s that were being discarded as building development took off in Warsaw and other eastern block cities in the early 2000s.
This guy, in traditional Hungarian dress, had advertised the Lottery Department Store in Budapest since 1959
Even the Soviets understood branding. Consider this logo for a now defunct 19th century textile factory in Bielwa, a town in southern Poland located at the foot of the Owl Mountains.
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