EN
The article addresses the most important problems related to the biography of a city, including its generic category. It appears that the best way to approach these difficulties is through the hermeneutic theory of genre. In order to define the key interpretative methodologies of the genre, the author draws on the geocritical concepts developed by Elżbieta Rybicka (the theory of auto/bio/geo/graphy) and Bertrand Westphal.