Studia Obszarów Wiejskich 2016, volume 43, pp. 59–72 htp://dx.doi.org/10.7163/SOW.43.4 inStytut geOgrafii i przeStrzennegO zagOSpOdarOWania pOlSka akademia nauk www.igipz.pan.pl kOmiSja ObSzaróW WiejSkich pOlSkie tOWarzyStWO geOgraficzne www.ptg.pan.pl Towards The creaTion of The “neTwork of The mosT inTeresTing villages”. selecTed problems of rural renewal in poland Marcin Wój cik University of Łódź Department of Regional and Social Geography ul. Kopcińskiego 31, 90–142 Łódź marcin.wojcik@geo.uni.lodz.pl Abstract: transformatons that occur in polish rural areas also impact tourism and recreaton enterprises. inita- ton of rural development programmes successfully actvates processes of modernisaton in many felds of social and economic life, including the material base (infrastructure), which is an essental element in the functoning of setlement systems. the aim of this study is to present selected results of the expert analysis of 50 polish villages, which are characterised by a high concentraton of cultural values – material, insttutonal and spiritual. the assessment of a group of rural setlements was meant to determine the potental for creatng the network of the most interestng Villages. the artcle presents the factual basis for such evaluaton, the diferentaton in groups of villages according to selected traits, especially those describing the infrastructural plane for develo- ping the tourism and recreatonal functons. the recipe for success includes many elements. the most important ones include atractve spatal confguraton in which there is no shortage of central locatons that are the focus of educatonal and recreatonal functons, the social awareness of the value of one’s own heritage and the ability to describe it (the purpose of stay), the existence of long-lastng insttutons referring to the historical memory and communal actvites, the ability to create the media for narraton placed in the internal environment, somewhat-formed path of its own deve- lopment based on own resources (developed tourism functons), as well as partcipaton in local and regional network of town with varying functons, and natural and anthropogenic environmental values (tourist regions). key words: rural renewal, social actvity, places, poland. Introducton in contemporary tmes, especially in the context of projects implemented with eu funds, village renewal is a very wide noton that includes revitalisaton of various facilites, im- provement of aesthetc qualites and development of public space, investment in in- frastructure, consolidaton of social capital and place identty, i.e. cuisine, cultural and educatonal actvity, etc. (cf. kłodziński et al. 2007; Wójcik 2010; Wilczyński 2012a; idziak and Wilczyński 2013; Staszewska 2015). One of the weakest aspects of objectve and re- alistc assessment of village cultural assets is absence of comprehensive informaton on their qualitatve and quanttatve scope. this informaton is fragmentary both in territorial