Visit Wroclaw

A taste of Wroclaw

Wrocław (Vrotswaff, formerly the German Breslau until 1945) is Poland's fourth city and most beautiful surprise — a fairy-tale university town set on 12 islands in the Oder river, connected by 130 bridges (more than any other Polish city), with one of the country's prettiest Old Towns, a vast 19th-century covered Centennial Hall (UNESCO-listed), and the strangest urban-art tradition in Europe. The pedestrianised Market Square (Rynek) is one of the largest in Europe, framed by a sequence of brightly painted Gothic and Renaissance merchant houses and dominated by the dramatic 14th-century Old Town Hall — a riot of carved gables and oriel windows now housing the Museum of Bourgeois Art. Climb the spiral staircase of the 14th-century St Mary Magdalene Church for the Witches' Bridge panorama. Don't miss the gentle game of dwarf-spotting: around 800 bronze gnome statues (the dwarves) are scattered throughout the city centre, each commemorating the Orange Alternative anti-communist protest movement of the 1980s. The Centennial Hall, the world's first reinforced-concrete dome (1913, designed by Max Berg, UNESCO listed), is an extraordinary architectural milestone. Take the slow boat to Cathedral Island (Ostrów Tumski) for the medieval Gothic Cathedral and the moving Panorama of the Battle of Racławice (a vast 19th-century circular painting).