On the free walking tour, we learnt that the city of Wroclaw was founded by Czechs and then it was later conquered by the Poles. However, the Czechs took it back however they were annexed to Austria, and so the town became part of the Austrian Empire. Through Prussia taking Austria, this town predominately became a German town. Due to this reason, most of the buildings in old town are in the German neoclassical style. After WWII, due to the large changes to country borders, Wroclaw was given back to Poland but is home to a very multicultural society – including a lot of Italians and Ukrainians. When communism swept over Europe including Poland, this town began a satirical protest by putting up lots of dwarf statues around the town – more than 300 statues can be found today scattered throughout the town.
We visited the Market Square, Wroclaw Town Hall, Ostrow Tumski, the Cathedral of St John the Baptist and St Elizabeth’s Church, the Market Hall and Tumski Bridge. Another interesting fact was that Poland is one of Europe’s leading growers of apples and their main customers were Russia. After sanctions were placed on Russia, they stopped buying the Polish apples and so started the Polish industry for producing ciders!
