Day 12: A Day in Wrocław
[Wednesday. June 19]
[Click on any photo for a bigger view]
This morning I was up early and got to go for a run in the uncrowded streets around the Wrocławski Rynek (Wrocław Town Square). A lot of street cleaners were out hosing off the stone streets. The streets were fairly empty. Almost all stands in the square were still boarded up, but I noticed that the large flower stand on one corner of the square was open. I later found out that it is open 24/7 365! By the time I was halfway through my run, the streets, especially near the larger boulevards away from the square, were active with pedestrian traffic, people on their way to work.
Early morning in the Wrocław town square, vendor stands still closed...
...except for the 24/7/365 flower stand.
Iron rhino street sculpture
Wrocław was once, long ago, a Polish city, but for centuries until the end of World War II, it was a city that changed hands between Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) and Germany. In recent centuries it was a German city called Breslau. Before World War II it was the largest German city east of Berlin. During much of the war, Breslau did not suffer damage, but in the end it was the last German city to capitulate before the end of the war in Europe. About half the city was destroyed in the last months of the war. After the war, it became part of Poland and its 600,000 German residents were expelled. This was part of a post-war settlement that was intended to secure a permanent border between Poland and Germany. Germany's final accession to these post-war borders was a requirement for Poland agreeing to the reunification of Germany in the early 1990s. What this means is that Wrocław is really only recently a Polish city and that much of the surviving older architecture in Wrocław is German. Wrocław has long been a university town and is a growing city. It is now the 3rd largest city in Poland, its metro population slightly ahead of Łódź.
A photo showing the destruction in Wrocław in 1945
The breakfast buffet at the hotel was again excellent. Lots of variety, including lots of pork. The tour group then met to board the bus for a morning tour of the city. Our local guide was Marcin (Polish for 'Martin'), a knowledgeable man who had moved to Wrocław as a student in the 1990s. The first stop of the tourbus was the Racławice Panorama. The panorama is a huge cycloramic painting (designed to put the viewer in the center of a 360 degree view) covering a circular wall of a dedicated museum. It depicts the Battle of Racławice. The battle was part of the Kościusczko Uprising of 1794, an uprising against Russian and Prussian influence in Poland before the final partition of the country. The battle took place in Racławice, about 50 km east of Kraców and well to the east of Wrocław. The battle, fought against part of the Russian army, was a victory for the Poles under Kościusczko (who had been a hero of the American Revolution). The Poles 'won the battle but lost the war' and soon Poland was no more for a century and a quarter. In the years when Poland was dominated by the Soviet Union, the battle (and the painting) was often a sensitive political topic, being a rallying point for Polish patriotic sentiment. The panorama is amazing, with the painting itself and foreground materials giving a very good illusion of depth. The audio guide is quite good, giving details of the battle as you slowly walk the circle and view sections of the painting. The panorama was painted in the late 19th century and installed in Lwów, east of Kraców. It was hidden during World War II and moved to Wrocław after the war when Lwów became Lviv, part of Ukraine in what was the USSR.
A park surrounds the building housing the Racławice panorama. In the park is a memorial to the people who died in the Katyn Massacre. This massacre of 22,000 Polish military and police officers, border guards, and members of the intelligentsia, was carried out by Soviet troops in the spring of 1940 on the order of Joseph Stalin. The Germans discovered the mass graves in the Katyn Forest when they invaded the USSR, but the Soviets blamed the Germans for the massacre and only admitted to it in 1990.
Kościusczko leads the cavalry in the Battle of Racławice
Scene from the Battle of Racławice
Another part of the battle scene
Monument to the Polish Fight For Independence
Katyn Massacre Memorial: Angel of Death hovers over slain victim and mother
Representation of Polish Motherhood holding her executed son
We next walked across a bridge over a branch of the Oder River to Cathedral Island (or as Vicky called it, "The Island of Catholicism"). Cathedral Island is home to numerous Catholic churches, some of them among the oldest in Wrocław. It was a Catholic (and Polish) enclave even during the long periods when the city was in Germany and when much of the surrounding area was Protestant. Many of the buildings (not just the churches) are owned by the Catholic Church. The area is no longer an island since one of the channels of the river that made it so was filled in some time ago.
Besides the many churches and official church buildings, there are various memorials, one to St. John of Nepomuk, a 14th Century martyred priest. He was a confessor of the Queen of Bohemia in what is now the nearby Czech Republic, and was ordered drowned by the king for not telling the king what the queen was confessing. He is a patron of the Seal of the Confessional and protector against drowning and floods.
Patriotic Polish poetry on Cathedral Island
Church of St. Martin on Cathedral Island
Soviet statue of Pope John XXIII: He said something nice about peace among nations and the Soviets made propaganda about it.
View in the distance of St. John the Baptist Cathedral on Cathedral Island
Church of the Holy Cross
Statue of St. John of Nepomuk
Vicky and I walked back to Cathedral Island during our free time later in the day to tour a beautiful botanical garden there. Our last stop with the tour group was a walk through part of the old Jewish quarter. As with all Polish cities, the Jewish population of Wrocław was more than decimated during World War II and has never recovered. There is a synagogue, the White Stork synagogue, that still serves a small Jewish population. A plaque commemorating the Jews of Wrocław is affixed to the wall of the synagogue.
We headed back to the hotel, passing the National Forum of Music. Opened in 2015, it contains numerous performance spaces and was one of the cultural institutions responsible for establishing Wrocław as one of co-host cities bearing the title of the European Capital of Culture in 2016.
The White Stork Synagogue
Plaque commemorating the Jews of Wrocław
National Forum of Music
One of the few remaining areas in Wrocław with visible WW II damaged buildings
For lunch Vicky and I we went back to the old city center and did some people watching. We sat next to a multigenerational family gathering, and near a couple of older men, one of whom was holding forth, 'My Dinner With Andre' style, while nursing both an espresso and a vodka. He had a very patient listener.
The old city center with more stalls open
Nicely browned pierogi
Chicken cutlet salad
Holding forth at a cafe with both an espresso and a vodka. This guy talked for a long time!
Multiple generations in a Polish family having lunch together
After lunch, we went to a building that originally held a 19th century multi-story department store. We were shopping for cheap washcloths since most hotels in Poland don't include these among bathroom linens. Vicky also wanted to find a head covering for when we visited Częstachowa. The building now houses a variety of of businesses, including a McDonald's, and a modern incarnation of the department store, Feniks, selling mostly cheap wares. The store had some cheapo washcloths, but no babuszkas.
Multiple stories of cheapo stuff
After a short rest at the hotel, we decided to walk back to "The Island of Catholicism" to tour a botanical garden. On our way to start the long walk, I stopped in to a cigar shop in the old part of town an bought myself a Cuban cigar to puff on along the way. It would help create some distance between us and the tourists. As we walked toward Cathedral Island, we passed an imposing mid-century structure built by the Nazis. It now houses the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Sejmik (legislature). It looks like something you'd expect to be festooned with swastika flags. Nearby we also passed the National Museum, a stone ivy-covered building we'd have loved to visit if we'd had time.
Cuban cigar for the walk to Cathedral Island
Lower Silesian Voivodeship Sejmik, constructed by the Nazis
Sculpture in front of the National Museum
View of the Oder River
Finishing up my stogie on the way to the botanical garden
The University of Wrocław Botanical Garden is a large garden on Cathedral Island. It is criss-crossed with paths that go by numerous ponds and fountains. The plants are mostly not exotic, and are beautifully organized and displayed.
Big variety of ferns in a small space
Cathedral backdrop in the garden
Big Plant!
Photographer being photographed
Ponds and fountains galore!
Zapiekanki, or Polish Pizza
It was time to hit the hay. Tomorrow we had to get up early to go to Częstachowa.
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