Kazik - The man who fell in love with Hoi An
DNO - In the heart of Hoi An, Da Nang lies a small park where visitors often pause before a stone relief of a man with gentle eyes. To many tourists, his face is unfamiliar. But to Hoi An residents, he is Kazik - a friend, a benefactor, and a guardian of their heritage.
Kazimierz Kwiatkowski (1944 - 1997), affectionately called Kazik, was a Polish architect who first set foot in Hoi An ancient town in the spring of 1982.
Invited by Vietnamese colleagues to see the little-known historic town, Kazik was immediately enchanted. “Hoi An is a fairy tale,” he whispered, seeing beyond timeworn shopfronts and quiet streets to the shimmering future they could hold.
Back then, Hoi An had no preservation plan, no recognition on any heritage list. Yet Kazik stayed, walking its narrow lanes, peering into timber-framed houses, sketching, measuring and dreaming. Side by side with local officers, he documented the town’s treasures and fought for their protection.
On March 19, 1985, Hoi An was declared a National Cultural Heritage Site - a milestone Kazik had quietly helped make possible.
Fate’s twist came twelve years later, on that very same date in 1997. Just months before Hoi An was to be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kazik passed away suddenly in Hue. He did not live to see the title, but the dream he had nurtured was already blooming.
In 2007, the city erected a bust of Kazik in a park at the heart of the old town. Today, the relief of Kazik watches over a pocket of the old town. Each morning, shopkeepers sweep the park clean, sometimes leaving flowers or a piece of fruit in silent thanks. Many never knew him, yet they carry his story.
Few foreigners anywhere have been given such a place in another nation’s heart. But Kazik had earned it, with vision, persistence, and a love for Hoi An as deep as any son of Vietnam could feel.
As Vietnamese heritage expert Hoang Dao Kinh reflected: “It is precious when a person loves and protects their own nation’s heritage. But for a foreigner to give their life to another country’s cultural treasures - that is extraordinary. Kazik was such a man”.