After more than forty years of (re)building from wartime destruction, through the creation of modern townhouses, today’s New Old Town is a testimony to the changes that have taken place over the years, with the accompanying compromise: contemporary needs versus the spirit of a bygone era. The New Old Town is a unique product because the intention was to create a new city, on a new root, to erase its origins. However, the root turned out not raw but marked by an old code of the place, impossible to be removed, hidden under a layer of soil for long years. Elbląg was lucky that modernist projects rejecting links with the historical plan of the city were never implemented, because the lack of reference to the past could have resulted in a complete loss of memory.