Wrocław is on my list of 'Polish Cities You Are Most Likely to Mispronounce.' It's number three, right after Bydgoszcz and Tczew. (It's supposed to sound like Vrote-swahv). Anyway I decided to visit Wrocław and have a look at the city I had been mispronouncing basically since I came to Poland. It was named the 2016 European Cultural Capital, so I even had an extra incentive to go explore.
I thought Wrocław was very charming. It has a lovely old town square (which is more like an old town rectangle) called Market Square. Wrocław's market dates back to medieval times when it was founded by the monarch, Henry the Bearded (the only reason I remember that is because of his name. I'm assuming he must have had a very impressive beard). It was largely rebuilt after 1945 when the city, then a part of Germany, endured an 80-day siege during the war, resulting in a great deal of destruction. The restoration process was undertaken with great attention to detail; The townhouses that delineate the square are supposedly very historically accurate, down to the flourishes on each facade's coat of arms. The bright yellows, reds, and greens certainly make it one of the most cheerful old town squares I've ever visited.
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| The Old Town Rectangle |
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| Flower markets in January |
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| Tumski Bridge |
The centerpiece of the old town is the Ratusz, the old Town Hall. The town hall is a Gothic-style building, but it was built and changed over a period of 250 years, so it also looks a bit pieced-together. Luckily, it only suffered minor damage in the war, so it is mostly original. These days it's used as a museum, not a site of civic life.
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| The Ratusz |
Interestingly, it so happens that there are also 300 gnomes that live in Wrocław. One of the funniest little quirks of the city are the gnome statues that can be found all over the place. If you go to the tourist center, you can even get a map and go on a 'gnome hunt.' But the gnomes are actually connected to a protest movement from Poland's communist era and are more than just a gimmicky tourist attraction. In the 1980s, under the restrictive government, a group of protesters went around graffiting little gnomes all over public spaces. The idea was to make the authorities look foolish as they had to spend their time painting over and censoring images of seemingly harmless little gnomes, or be seen arresting people for painting pictures of gnomes. Once, the protesters all dressed in orange and wearing homemade gnome hats, marched through Wrocław protesting for 'gnomes rights.' The authorities were shown on the news chasing and arresting people dressed as gnomes and looking ridiculous. The protesters, known as the Orange Alternative, were supported by the Solidarity movement as they organized their various absurd protests. Three decades later, the little gnomes are now the playful, permanent inhabitants of the city (and they can rest assured that their rights will be protected in Wrocław).
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| Gnomes, or 'krasnale' in Polish |
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| Gnomes drinking beer |
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| And gnomes eating pierogies! |
