Things to do in Silesia
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Kalogródek
Hidden behind some rough-looking wooden hoardings, the big, stepped terrace here is like a playground for students. Darts and cheap beer (the local brew Piast) make sure it’s generally heaving, even when the weather’s uncooperative.
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Wrocław Opera
This venerable and recently restored music theatre is the traditional venue for opera and ballet performances.
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Karczma Lwowska
Meaty Polish standards in a space with a rustic rural look.
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Town Hall Complex
The central Town Hall Complex is so large that it incorporates three internal streets. The main structure took almost two centuries (1327-1504) to complete, and work on the 66m-high tower and decoration continued for another century.
The eastern façade reflects the stages of the town hall's development, split into three distinct elements. The segment to the right, with its austere early-Gothic features, is the oldest, while the delicate carving in the section to the left shows elements of the early Renaissance style. Prisoners' sentences were once read aloud from the little loggia. The central section dates from the 16th century and is topped by an ornamented triangular…
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Centennial Hall
The Centennial Hall, also called the People’s Hall (Hala Ludowa), is a huge, round, 6000-seat auditorium, built in 1913 and added to Unesco’s World Heritage List in 2007. Designed by German architect Max Berg and opened to mark the centenary of Napoleon’s defeat by allied European forces in 1813, the hall is topped with a huge dome measuring 65m in diameter – a remarkable achievement in its day. The unusual 96m-high steel Spire (Iglica) in front of the entrance was built in 1948 on the occasion of the Exhibition of the Regained Territories.
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Cathedral of St John the Baptist'
The centrepiece is the mammoth, twin-towered Cathedral of St John the Baptist. This three-aisled Gothic basilica was built between 1244 and 1590. Seriously damaged during WWII – shrapnel scarring is still visible on the exterior walls – it was reconstructed in its previous Gothic form, complete with dragon guttering. The high altar boasts a gold and silver triptych from 1522 attributed to the school of Veit Stoss, and the western portico is a medieval gem. For once you don’t need strong legs to climb the 91m-high tower as there is a lift.
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Church of St Mary Magdalene
One block east of the Rynek is the Church of St Mary Magdalene, a mighty Gothic brick building constructed during the city’s heyday in the 14th century. Its showpiece is a copy of a Romanesque portal from around 1280 on the south wall, which originally adorned the Benedictine Abbey in Ołbin, but was moved here in 1546 after the abbey was demolished. The original tympanum is on display in Wrocław’s National Museum. You can climb the 72m-high tower and cross the so-called Penance Footbridge (Mostek Pokutnik).
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Church of Our Lady on the Sand
The main monument on Sand Island (Wyspa Piasek) is the Church of Our Lady on the Sand, a lofty 14th-century building that dominates this tiny islet. Almost all the fittings were destroyed during WWII and the half-dozen old triptychs you see inside have been collected from other Silesian churches. The wonderful Romanesque tympanum in the south aisle is the only remnant of the original 12th-century church that once stood here.
There's a mechanised szopka (Nativity scene) in the first chapel to the right; make a small donation when one of the assistants turns it on.
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Cathedral Island
Cathedral Island - it was connected to the mainland in the 19th century - was the cradle of Wrocław. It was here that the Ślężanie, a tribe of West Slavs who gave their name to the region, constructed their stronghold in the 7th or 8th century. After the town was incorporated into the Polish state and a bishopric established in 1000, Wrocław's first church was built here.
Over time a number of churches, monasteries and other religious buildings were constructed, giving a distinctive, markedly ecclesiastical character to the district.
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City Dwellers’ Art Museum
The museum’s Gothic interiors are every bit as magnificent as the building’s exterior, particularly the Great Hall (Sala Wielka) on the 1st floor, with carved decorations from the second half of the 15th century. Adjoining it is the Princes’ Room (Sala Książęca), which was built as a chapel in the mid-14th century. The historic rooms house several exhibitions, including the Wrocław Treasury (Wrocławski Skarb) of gold and silverware from the 16th to 19th centuries.
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Rynek
Rynek, Wrocław's market square, is Poland's second biggest after the one in Kraków. The Rynek was laid out in the 1240s and lined with timber houses, which were later replaced with brick structures. They gradually changed over the centuries, adopting the architectural style of the day. The north and south sides were completely destroyed during WWII but have since been rebuilt; they offer an appealing amalgam of architectural styles from Gothic to Art Nouveau.
Check out the new wavelike glass fountain on the western side of the square.
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Racławice Panorama
Wrocław’s pride and joy is the Racławice Panorama. Housed in a cylindrical building in a park southwest of the National Museum, it’s a cyclorama, a giant canvas painting measuring 15m by 114m and wrapped around the internal walls of the rotunda. It is viewed from an elevated central balcony. Three-dimensional items (tree trunks, plants, weapons, roads), special lighting and sound effects bring it to life.
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Museum of Architecture
A 16th-century former Bernardine church and monastery contains the Museum of Architecture. The collection features stone sculptures and stained-glass windows from various historic buildings of the region. The oldest exhibit, a Romanesque tympanum on the ground floor, dates from 1165. The museum also has a 12th-century Jewish tombstone, a 1:500 scale model of Wrocław (1740) and a delightful cloister garden.
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Aula Leopoldinum
The Aula Leopoldinum is found on the 1st floor of the main edifice of the University of Wrocław. Embellished with elaborate stucco work, sculptures, paintings and a trompe l'œil ceiling fresco, it's the city's best Baroque interior. The more modest Oratorium Marianum, on the ground floor, is included in the admission fee. Classical music concerts are occasionally held here. You can also climb the Mathematical Tower.
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Church of Ss Stanislaus, Wenceslas and Dorothy
The massive Gothic affair located just south of the Old Town is the Franciscan Church of SS Stanislaus, Wenceslas and Dorothy, founded in 1351 to commemorate the meeting between Polish King Kazimierz III Wielki (Casimir III the Great) and his Bohemian counterpart, Charles IV, at which they agreed to leave Silesia in Bohemia’s hands. Note the sizable Rococo tomb at the start of the south aisle.
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Passage Sculpture
About 500m south of the Franciscan Church of SS Stanislaus, Wenceslas and Dorothy, south of the Old Town, is a fascinating sculpture called Passage, which shows a group of seven bronze pedestrians literally being swallowed into the pavement, only to re-emerge on the other side of the street. It's by Jerzy Kalina and was unveiled in 2005 to mark the 24th anniversary of the declaration of martial law.
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PRL
The dictatorship of the proletariat is alive and well in this tongue-in-cheek venue inspired by communist nostalgia. Disco lights play over a bust of Lenin, propaganda posters line the walls and red-menace memorabilia is scattered through the maze of rooms. Descend to the basement – beneath the portraits of Stalin and Mao – if you’d like to hit the dance floor.
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Park Szczytnicki
Behind Centenary Hall to the northeast is Park Szczytnicki, Wrocław's oldest and largest 'English park' (ie wooded area), encompassing 112 hectares with 400 species of trees. A short walk north along the pergola will bring you to the small Japanese Garden, while further east is the 16th-century wooden Church of St John Nepomuk, brought here from the Opole region in 1914.
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Church of St Elizabeth
Just north of Hansel and Gretel is the monumental brick Church of St Elizabeth, with its 83m-high tower. You can climb the narrow stairwell with 250-plus steps to the top for a great view of Wrocław. This Gothic church went up in flames in 1976 in suspicious circumstances, and many of the furnishings, including the organ, were lost.
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Church of St Adalbert
The highlight of the single-nave Gothic Church of St Adalbert is the 18th-century Baroque chapel adjoining the southern transept, with its Rococo alabaster sarcophagus of the Blessed Czesław, founder of the original monastery here. Wrocłavians are devoted to this chapel as it remained unscathed during WWII while the rest of the church was almost demolished.
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Church of the Holy Name of Jesus
The Baroque-Rococo Church of the Holy Name of Jesus, the university church and arguably the city’s most beautiful, was built in the 1690s on the site of the former Piast castle. Its spacious interior, crammed with ornate fittings and adorned with fine illusionist frescoes of the life of Jesus on its vaulting, is quite spectacular.
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Wrocław Tours
Wrocław Tours has a three-hour guided bus and walking tour of Wroclaw (adult/concession 100/50zł) in English departing at 9.30am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It also offers a five-hour tour to Świdnica and Książ at 1.30pm on Tuesday and Saturday (adult/concession 150/75zł).
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Military Museum
Just outside the ring road encircling the Old Town, the squat brick Arsenal (Arsenał), with two towers and an enormous courtyard, is the most significant remnant of the 15th-century fortifications. It now houses the Military Museum, featuring old weapons, uniforms and lots of helmets.
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Sand Island
Sand Island is to the west of Cathedral Island (Ostrów Tumski) and is connected to Cathedral Island by the Cathedral Bridge (Most Tumski) and to the Old Town by the Sand Bridge (Most Piaskowy). The main monument here is the Church of Our Lady on the Sand, a lofty 14th-century building that dominates this tiny islet.
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Restauracja Jadka
Behind what is arguably the best restaurant in town is Magda Gessler, the country’s top female chef. Expect impeccable modern versions of Polish classics and silver-service table settings (candles, crystal, linen) in delightful Gothic surrounds. The set lunch available Monday to Saturday is a snip at 35zł.
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