Let's start our trip to Wrocław with a bit of history. Over the years the city has been Polish, Bohemian (Czech), Habsburg (Austria/Hungary) and Prussian (German). Essentially until the end of the Second World War it was a German speaking city called Breslau. After the war most of the area known as Lower Silesia became part of the new Polish state, the Germans were evicted and moved further west and the city of Breslau became Wrocław. It was then repopulated with displaced people from Lviv, a former Polish city that now found itself in Ukraine. Consequently there are strong links between this part of Poland and Ukraine.
Wrocław is Poland's fourth largest city and sits on the River Oder/Odra just north of the Czech border.
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| The City Hall |
The weather here today has been a bit grey and damp so unfortunately the colours in the pictures are not as vibrant as I would like, but that is the trade off you get with late September having less tourist crowds.
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| The Market Place |
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| The River Oder with the cathedral on the right |
Wrocław is also home to another of those big panorama paintings - like we saw in The Hague and at Waterloo. This one depicts the Battle of Racławice in 1794. The painting was originally in Lviv and later moved to Wrocław, but was not restored and put on show during the Communist years because it was not politically correct at the time - the painting shows a battle where Polish insurgents beat the Russians! Today it is very popular with patriotic Poles.
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