A busy week means pics from Tuesday's brief stroll around the historic centre of Toruń are being posted today. Above: The fortified town walls facing the Vistula riverfront. Pass through that gate on the right and... below... just inside the walls. Strong sunlight gives the town a distinctly Italianate feel.
Like Lublin, Toruń is town that's partially done up; crumbling historic tenements awaiting refurbishment neighbouring buildings that have been restored to a high standard.
Toruń's slogan is 'Gotyk na dotyk' (Touch the Gothic). Streets in the centre are being pedestrianised, digging is going on everywhere.
Below: Is this Henley? Are we on the Thames? No, this is the Vistula as it flows through Toruń. Like its 'twin city' Bydgoszcz 45km to the west, Toruń is a rowing town. Bydgoszcz and Toruń share the administration of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie* province and there is talk of creating a 'Bi-City' - rather like the agglomeration of Gdynia, Gdańsk and Sopot is the Tri-City.
Really. One can exaggerate with that polarising filter. But it does make the grand architecture even grander.*The Kujawsko-Pomorskie province does not need translating into English as the 'Cuiavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship' any more than Bedfordshire needs translating into 'Chrabstwo Łóżkowo-Bródzeńskie' for Polish readers.
This time last year:
What a carrion!
This time two years ago:
Orchard on ul. Trombity - apple trees in bloom
Spirit of place - why Jeziorki's so special to me
Warsaw's Palace of Culture - from Jeziorki and from up close
Large cargo aircraft over our house
A Jeziorki pheasant in springtime
Totally agree about Polish province names "Greater Poland" and "Lesser Poland" make me squirm. Let's start a campaign to ban Polynglysz.
ReplyDeleteWe have the high street (Szeroka) being redone currently - it's to regain it's 19th century appearance. But they discovered some archeological thing in the ground and they say the digging will last through the tourist season O.o
ReplyDeleteIt's so annoying - cos its the best place to have a walk:/
Toruń also has a second slogan: "Kosmos atrakcji". All the space things going on here plus the vibrant culture - if you consider the size of the city..
The problem with speeding the process of renovation of the Old Town is that most of it is owned by the city, which rented it to city's poorest inhabitants in the communist times. Now Old Town is populated with retired people who have to cope with the neighborhood of pathological families, who won't take care of renvated buildings. And there's a mix of elegant shops, offices and drunks' flats.