Wrocław

Lower Silesia & Karpacz

City of encounters There’s always something happening here! The city captivates visitors with its boundless, youthful energy, but its official history dates back over a thousand years, to the Roman Empire, when a settlement at this site was a major transit centre on the Amber Road. The number of landmarks here, from Gothic churches to gems of modernism, headed by the UNESCO – listed Centennial Hall, can seem overwhelming.

Here and away

 Wrocław Airport – 11km  Warsaw – 300km

Berlin – 295km

Prague – 215km

Overview

�� 1214  632 k  293 km2  4 338 PLN  126 k

Culture & Nature

�� 24  14  68 Food & Stay

 8688  902  155

A group of kayakers at a lock next to University of Wrocław's main building which features the longest Baroque façade in the world.

But it’s worth coming to Wrocław not just for the tourist sites, because the city’s calendar is bursting with festivals and other cultural events year-round, devoted to classical music (Wratislavia Cantans), ambitious film (T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival), crime fiction (International Crime Festival), theatre of disappearing cultures (Brave Festival), and even the annual attempt to beat the Guinness record for group guitar-playing (thousands and thousands of people play ‘Hey Joe’ together at the Thanks Jimi Festival). It’s not surprising that such an open city, where Czech, German, Jewish and Polish influences have mingled for centuries, was named the 2016 European Capital of Culture.

What’s also special about Wrocław is that it carries within it the core of another city altogether: the former Polish city of Lwów. After World War II, when it became Lviv, Ukraine, its intellectual elite, such as mathematicians, writers, broadcasters and lawyers, moved west to Wrocław. Some say they brought the genius loci of Lwów with them to the capital of Lower Silesia, which accounts for Wrocław the multicultural spirit of down to the present day •

LEFT: The tallest Gothic tower in Poland and one of the tallest in Europe adorns St. Elizabeth’s Church •

TOP: Centennial Hall, designed by Max Berg, is one of the crowning achievements of 20th century architecture. Added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2006 as a pioneering work of engineering and architecture • AbOVE: Wrocław’s Municipal Stadium was built as an arena for the UEFA EURO 2012 tournament. One of its distinguishing characteristics is the semi-transparent facade made of teflon-coated glassfibre mesh. It has a seating capacity of 45,105 •

No distance

Łukasz Rusznica, photographer, curator of photography exhibitions, director of Miejsce gallery

An excellent but atypical place to visit in Wrocław is the Tajne Komplety bookstore. It is a REAL bookstore that sells good books and is run by fun, open-minded people who know their stuff. A great place to linger over cakes and coffee.

The underrated Nadodrze neighbourhood is, in my view, the most interesting part of town. Until recently there wasn’t much here to attract visitors, but now there are new cafés and bars springing up at every step, mingling in with local everyday life. You will still find shoemakers and other traditional craftsmen (RIGhT) among the small boutiques. Of the many interesting spots to unwind and have a good time I recommend UR, which has a great vibe and hosts occasional cultural events, a club called Das Lokal, and the pleasant eatery Karawan Bar.

A must visit is TIFF (AbOVE), usually held in September. The name is an abbreviation for ‘A Slightly Different Photography Festival’. It’s an incredibly friendly atmosphere, breaking down the distance between artist and audience. The festival is held at various spots around town, and its publications are brilliant!•

The spirit of the city

Michał Zygmunt, writer

All it takes for a young person from here to appreciate Wrocław’s German flavour is a quick visit to Berlin. The surroundings are strikingly familiar: the façades of the old buildings, the architecture of the pre-war train stations, the distribution of parks, and even the same shape of the paving stones.

The Sępolno housing estate (bOTTOM RIGhT) is located in the middle of the Big Island which takes up the eastern portion of Wrocław’s city centre. (Wrocław itself is spread out over 20 different islands.) The layout of Sępolno is modelled on the German eagle, but because Poland’s symbol is also an eagle, it’s just as easy to think of it as a Polish accent in a postGerman city. Sępolno was built as a low-cost garden city for workers but is now an expensive district for the elite. Right next door is the beautiful Zacisze, like Berlin’s Zehlendorf – a district of monumental villas inhabited by the bourgeoisie. The model estate WuWa is unaccountably ignored by most tourists and appreciated only by architecture students, who make pilgrimages here from all over the world. It may be the most excellent remnant of the German architectural heritage in Wrocław, along with the department stores in the city centre: Renoma, Feniks and Kameleon (AbOVE RIGhT). Another model modernist estate, Popowice, is still amazing in photographs, even though it no longer exists, having been rebuilt with shoddy blocks during the Communist era. The German heritage in Wrocław managed to endure in various surprising forms. It’s as if the spirit of the city remained the same regardless of the origin of its inhabitants •

Bourgeois rebels

Piotr Czerkawski, film critic Wrocław is like a kid from a nice family who has just entered the rebellious stage. It wants to be subversive but, in reality, it remains its stable, bourgeois self. This has its limitations, as on weeknights all the decent clubs close by 2 am. But they make up for it at eekends. The city still lacks a little something to achieve the status of a contemporary metropolis, but residents and visitors have a huge array of artistic events to choose from. For good reason, Wrocław has been named the 2016 European Capital of Culture. Thanks to the New Horizons festival in July (LEFT), it has become the best city in Poland to see films. The event lasts just 9 days, but there’s also an art house multiplex operating year-round that is unequalled anywhere in Europe •

The brutalist-style housing and retail complex near Grunwaldzki Square (commonly known as either the ‘toilet seat buildings - sedesowce - or Wrocław’s Manhattan) was designed by Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak between 1967-1970. The housing estate has been added to the Lower Silesia Province heritage list •

Lower Silesia Castles and wine

A region rich in landmarks, is not just picturesque, with its 760 castles and palaces could give the Loire Valley a run for its money. A fourth of Poland’s castles and palaces are found in Lower Silesia. Sites like Książ (below), Czocha (lefT), Chojnik, Bolków, Kamieniec Ząbkowicki and Grodziec attract visitors not only for their old architecture and the knightly customs they maintain. Europe’s largest Goth music festival, Castle Party, has been held at Bolków Castle for the past 10 years. Czocha draws Harry Potter fans for larP sessions (live action role-playing), where the Polish castle is a stand-in for the celebrated Hogwarts magic school. Lower Silesia is also noted for its reviving wine-making traditions. Vineyards near Świdnica and Zielona Góra (in the neighbouring Lubuskie province) are a frequent stop on the wine tourism itinerary •

Karpacz

Magic mountain

The town of Karpacz, at the foot of Mount Śnieżka, the highest peak in the Sudetes Mountains, is a charming spa town featuring 19th century pensions, and a major winter sports centre with well-developed modern facilities. The location offers a wide array of attractions, from mountain hiking to a summer luge track.

The most original feature in Karpacz is the medieval wooden ‘Viking temple’. The Vang stave church (rIGhT) was built in Norway in the 12th century, but in 1842 it was taken apart (made easier because no nails were used in the construction) and shipped via Szczecin to Berlin (where it was originally supposed to stand on Peacock Island). Eventually it ended up in the Karkonosze Mountains. Since 1844, it has served the local Lutheran parish, and is the oldest wooden house of worship in Poland.

The Toy Museum features a collection of toys and dolls from all over the world-over 2,000 items-based on the private collection of Henryk Tomaszewski, founder of the Wrocław Pantomime Theatre.

A final must-see is the peak of Mount Śnieżka, topped by a meteorological observatory shaped like three flying saucers (aboVe), with exhibitions of weather instruments and photographs. A panorama of the Karkonosze Mountains stretches out from the observation deck. Under good weather conditions you can see as far as 200km away •

LEFT: Tumski Bridge • TOP: Ostrów Tumski (Cathedral Island), while no longer an island is still the oldest part of Wrocław • AbOVE: Grunwald Bridge •

Rędzin Bridge on the Wrocław Motorway Ring Road bu 2011 arJan Biliszczuk wy122 m wy612 m

Grunwald Bridge bu 1910 arRichard Plüddemann Alfred von Scholtz wy20 m wy112.5m

Zoo Bridge: bu 1897 arRichard Plüddemann, Karl Klimm wy62 m

Tumski Bridge bu 1889 arAlfred von Scholtz wy6.90 m wy52.19m

Sand Bridge bu 1861 (a wooden bridge has stood at this location since the 12th century) arErnst Uber wy31.74m wy12.02m

The city of a hundred bridges

Wrocław has the most bridges of all cities in Poland, and ranks fourth in Europe behind only Amsterdam, Venice, and Saint Petersburg. Prior to World War II, there were 303 bridges and footbridges within today’s city limits, up to date calculations (based on somewhat different criteria) count 117 (including 27 footbridges). The largest and most important bridges cross the main and secondary branches of the Oder River •

Enterprising Poland

From coal to Beacon Valley Coal and textiles: if that’s what you associate with the Polish economy, it’s time to think again. Today’s Polish entrepreneurship is a phenomenon that enabled the country to maintain economic growth through the global economic crisis. And that growth continues. According to the International Monetary Fund, Poland’s gross domestic product will exceed that of Sweden and Switzerland 2020, and the country will become the world’s 22nd largest economy.

To understand how big a success that is, remember that a modern economy only began to be built in Poland in 1989. Only after that were Polish firms established on a broad scale. Today SMes employ three-fourths of Polish workers and generate 67% of GdP.

Thanks to its entrepreneurs, Poland has succeeded in entering entirely new fields. On the basis of the chemical industry, a modern cosmetics sector has developed. Traditional textiles have transformed into a movement of hundreds of small brands, designer workshops offering clothing which competes with huge global chains that use cheap labour in Asia. Agriculture, traditionally a Polish strength, has enjoyed a resurgence, not only in mass-scale production but also organic farming. The shipyard industry has found a business strategy and a role for itself after years of problems.

But first and foremost, it is the Polish IT sector that has begun to grow at a dizzying pace. Growth in education has led to a boom in start-ups, giving Poland a strong position in fields like computer games and the Internet of Things •