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Nicolaus Copernicus was Polish renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium published in 1543, is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the scientific revolution.
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| The Gingerbread Store. Traditional Polish gingerbread has been produced since the Middle Ages in the city of Thorn. Part of the national cuisine of Poland. They have been praised in literature, poetry etc. They were also traditionally given as a gift. |
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| Listed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites Thorn has many monuments of architecture beginning from the Middle Ages. The city is famous for having preserved almost intact its medieval spatial layout and many gothic buildings, all built from brick, including monumental churches, the Town Hall and many burgher houses. |
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| Brick granary near Leaning Tower in baroque style (ul. Piekary 2). |
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| Nicolaus Copernicus house in his city of Thorn (see 7. photo). |
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| See the tower? It is the Church of the Holy Spirit. The idea to build it is the result of the consequences of religious riots between Catholics and Protestants, which erupted in the city in July 1724 (The Tumult of Thorn). The main city temple of protestants was taken as a punishment. After that they had to pray in cramped rooms of Artus Court (in the gallery). So they started to build the new one which is also taken by catholics and completed in neo-baroque style designed by Hugon Hartung and Carl Schäfer. Despite of the fact that the Church is old, the main tower is quiet new, from 1897-1899 (see 12. photo). |
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| Nicolaus Copernicus house facade (see 5. photo). |
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| City Townhall clocktower. |
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| The Leaning Tower is a medieval city tower, which was named after a significant deviation from the vertical (1.46 m). It was built in the 2nd half of thirteenth century as a straight, 15-meter high defense tower immersed in defensive walls. Already in medieval ages the tower collapsed down from sandy-loam surface. Now-a-days the tower is one of the most characteristic places of the Old Town. |
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| The brick tenements near old town market. |
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| City Townhall and Artus Court built in Dutch Neo-Renaissance style. The building was often rebuilt and renovated, especially in the seventeenth century, when done painting the facade rich decoration. The Artus Court was the place where Teutons and Polish signed the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) after Thirteen Years War. |
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| The part of the City Townhall and neo-baroque Church of the Holy Spirit. |
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| One of the charming gothic streets in the old town. |
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| The charming tenements of medieval Thorn. |
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| The knight figure on the facade of tenement. |
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| Ruins of Teutonic Castle, the earliest Teutonic castle at region, built in the shape of a horseshoe, presents the earlier form of teutonic castles. The construction began in the 50s thirteenth century. In 1454 the castle was taken by outraged citizens and then almost completely destroyed. These events initiated the well-known Thirteen Years' War. |
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| The memorial plaque made of wood (beside the Teutonic Castle). |
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| The shore of the Vistula, the Queen of the Polish Rivers viewed from the Old Town. |
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| Another tenements located next to the Teutonic Castle. |
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| Charming townhouses with windows in the city wall (guess the old places for archers). |
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| City Townhall. Gothic building built in stages during the thirteenth and fourteenth century, rebuilt in the seventeenth century and rebuilt after destruction in the eighteenth century, one of the finest examples of medieval bourgeois architecture in Central Europe. |
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| The Baj Pomorski Theater is a well-known Thorn puppet theater. |
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| Another ruins of Teutonic Castle (See 16. photo) |
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| Former Evangelical Church of St. Trinity. Built in 1824 in neo-romanesque style (the only building of its kind in Torun) in cooperation with one of the greatest architects in Germany, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, at the location of old city townhall which was destroyed (survived only gothic underworld). |
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| Forest mushroom dumplings and potato pancakes. |
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| Mural on the city wall. |
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| St. Mary's Church was built in accordance with the "beggar rules" of the Franciscan Order without main tower, only three small signatures. Church hall dates from the second half of the fourteenth century, built on the site of previous, smaller ones. It is one of the three largest Gothic churches in northern Poland (next to St. Mary's Church in Gdansk and the Cathedral of St. John in Toruń - in the gallery, last picture). It is one of the most outstanding achievements of sacral architecture in Poland's fourteenth century. |
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| One of the many Gothic churches in the city. |
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| Church of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. One of three gothic churches of the town, built from brick, an aisled hall with a monumental west tower. The first church from the 13th century was a small hall without aisles and with polygonal presbytery. This was replaced by aisled hall church in first half of 14th century, which was has been rebuilt many times and extended until it reached its present form at the end of 15th century. The second largest medieval bell in Poland (Tuba Dei, made in 1500) is situated on the tower. |
