POLAND - CITIES AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

SIGHTS WORTH SEEING –THE POLISH “MUST SEE LIST”

 CITIES AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

1.       GDANSK is the business and cultural capital of the Pormorze region, imbued with a history spanning a thousand years.The old town boasts splendid manor houses. Gothic churches the Nepture Fountain and the Artus Court (Dwor Artua), which used to be the seat of the guild of merchants at the time when Gdansk belonged to the Hanseatic League. The trademark of the city is the medieval port crane called the Zuraw, which was used for loading and unloading goods.

2.       LUBLIN

It is a vibrant university, business and cultural centre in eastern Poland. For centuries, Lublin was the key town for the relations between Poland and Lithuania,which were joined in the late 16^th century into one united nation. The Roman Catholic chapel in the castle with its opulent frescos in the Brzantine style symbolizes this unification .Before the war, the city was also home to the largest Jewish community in Poland. The Nobel Prize winning author Iassc Bashevis Singer immortalized the erstwhile atmosphere of his hometown in the novel The Magician of Lublin. The Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, active until 1939, was considered the best Talmudic school in the world. Academic traditions are upheld these days by the Marie Curie Sklodowska University and the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, with a robust student community of one hundred thousand shaping the character of the town.

3.       POZNAN –The old Poznan was a town of many cultures where Poles, Germans and Jews lived in harmony. The oldest section of the city is Ostrow Tumski with a Romansque cathedral and an archaeological reserve. The route running from the Old Town to Ostrow Tumski is a popular tourist walk known as the Royal Imperial Route. The streets all meet in the Old Square where the Renaissance Town Hall proudly overlooks the area. It is one of the most beautiful examples of Renaissance culture.

A bugle call come from its tower and the clock installed in 1551 delights the tourists with its figurines of mechanical goats which emerge and butt heads. Many cultural events are organized in the shopping, arts and business center, “ Stary Browar”, or “Old Brewery “, which is located in a meticulously restored brewery complex from the 19^th century.

4.       WROCLAW – European Capital of Culture in 2016.Magnificent manor houses, churches , the university  and a whole gamut of Nobel Prize winners are all witnesses of the town’s former splendor. Ostrow Tumski, once an island on the Oder, recalls the earliest period of Wroclaw’s history. Its soaring medieval churches tower over the Old Town which stretches on the other side of the river. The old town is the focal point of city life with the busy Wroclaw Market Hall ( Hala Targowa), the New Stock Building ( Nowa Gielda), counties banks and office buildings and amid all Raclawice Panorama, a monumental cycloramic painting depicting the 1794 battle between Poles and Russians. Small figurines of number have been continually growing, as tours are being organized to see them all and even guide books are devoted to the phenomenon.