Sights in Lublin
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Castle
Despite its relatively friendly façade, the 14th-century Castle has a grim history. It was rebuilt as a prison in the 1820s and remained so until 1954. During WWII, more than 100,000 people suffered here at the hands of Nazi occupiers before being transported on to extermination camps. Hundreds of Jewish and Polish political prisoners had survived here until July 1944, only to be shot mere hours before the Red Army liberated the city.
Since 1957, the castle has housed the Lublin Museum with a collection ranging from silverware and porcelain to woodcarvings and weaponry. The particularly impressive art includes big names (such as Jacek Malczewski) and big pictures, such a…
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Majdanek State Museum
Some 4km southeast of Lublin’s centre is Majdanek extermination camp, where tens of thousands were murdered. The site is now the Majdanek State Museum, founded only four months after the camp’s liberation – the first of its kind in the world. Unlike other extermination camps, the Nazis went to no effort to conceal Majdanek. Coming from the main road, the sudden appearance of time-frozen guard towers and barbed-wire fences interrupting the sprawl of suburbia is disquieting. The details are all the more confronting; gas chambers are open to visitors, and many of the prisoners’ possessions are on display. The 5km walk through the museum starts at the Visitor’s Centre, pass…
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Dominican Priory
Originally a Gothic complex founded by King Kazimierz III Wielki in 1342, the Dominican Priory was rebuilt in Renaissance style after it was ravaged by fire in 1575. Two historic highlights inside the church are the Chapel of the Firlej Family (1615), containing family members’ tombstones; and the Tyszkiewicz Chapel (1645–59), with impressive Renaissance stuccowork. For an insight into 18th-century Lublin, note the large historical painting, The Fire of Lublin, which depicts the 1719 fire (in the Szaniawski family chapel to your right as you enter the church). The Dominian Basilica was closed by the Russians in 1886; the monks returned just before the outbreak of WWII…
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Chapel of the Holy Trinity
At the eastern end of the castle is its most prized asset – the exquisite 14th-century Chapel of the Holy Trinity, featured on many postcards (the photographers must have snuck in a flash and a wide angle lens). The chapel is covered from floor to ceiling with polychrome Russo-Byzantine frescoes. Painted in 1418, only to be later plastered over, they were rediscovered in 1897 and painstakingly restored over a hundred-year period. These are possibly the finest examples of medieval wall paintings in the country, so colour-rich you could lick the paint off the walls.
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Cathedral
Next to the tower is the 16th-century cathedral, formerly a Jesuit church. There are many impressive details to behold, including the Baroque trompe l’oeil frescoes (the work of Moravian artist Józef Majer) and the 17th-century altar made from a black Lebanese pear tree. The painting of the Black Madonna is said to have shed tears in 1945, making it a source of much reverence for local devotees. The acoustic vestry (so called for its ability to project whispers) and the treasury behind the chapel are also worth some attention.
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Lublin Museum
Since 1957, the castle has housed the Lublin Museum, with a collection ranging from silverware and porcelain to woodcarvings and weaponry. The particularly impressive art includes big names (such as Jacek Malczewski) and big pictures, such as the detail-rich Lublin Union of 1569, depicting the merging of Poland and Lithuania . Jan Matejko’s seminal work was hidden in various places throughout WWII, and now takes pride of place in the very building where the landmark union took place.
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Old Jewish cemetery
The Old Jewish cemetery , established in 1541, has 30-odd readable tombstones. The oldest dates from 1641 and is the oldest Jewish tombstone in Poland in its original location. The graveyard is on a hill between ul Sienna and ul Kalinowszczyzna, a short walk northeast of the castle. It is surrounded by a high brick wall and the gate is locked. Contact Mrs Honig (x081 747 8676; Apt 7, ul Dembowskiego 4) at her home, 200m north of the cemetery; she lets visitors in (leave a donation).
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New Jewish Cemetery
The new Jewish cemetery, founded in 1829, is the resting place of 52,000 Jews buried here until 1942. The cemetery was destroyed by the Nazis during WWII (who used tombstones in the construction of parts of Majdanek extermination camp) and is still in the process of being restored. Broken tombstones form a wall around the cemetery. The graveyard and the small museum can be visited during daylight hours. There is a 24-hour guard on duty.
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Skansen
The well-designed skansen, 5km west of the centre on the Warsaw road, covers an undulating terrain of 25 hectares. Appearing as a traditional village of numerous buildings with fully equipped interiors, there is a fine manor house, a windmill, an Orthodox church and a carved timber gate (1903) designed by Stanisław Witkiewicz. The skansen hosts various temporary displays and cultural events.
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Synagogue
The only synagogue to survive of the 38 that functioned before WWII is in an early 20th-century building, which bears no distinguishing features of a synagogue. It contains a modest exhibition of old photographs, books in Hebrew and ritual objects. Enter the gate from the street and take the door on the right leading upstairs to the 1st-floor synagogue.
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Archdiocesan Museum
The chaotic layout of artworks in hidden nooks and crannies, combined with the lack of English explanations, means that you can discover ancient artefacts in the haphazard manner of Indiana Jones.
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Old Town Hall
Some of the buildings in the historic quarter surrounding the Rynek have lovely restored façades. At the Rynek's centre is the 1781 neoclassical Old Town Hall .
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Historical Museum of Lublin
Historical Museum of Lublin, which displays documents and photographs relating to the town’s civic history.
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