All The Reasons You Should Consider Visiting Wroclaw Poland
Visiting Wroclaw Poland wasn’t part of my original Poland travel itinerary. Krakow was of course – it’s Poland’s most famous destination for tourists. Gdansk too. And I envisioned time in Warsaw as well, since it was our gateway city into the country. But Wroclaw, located in Poland’s southwest corner, seemed somewhat out of the way.
Fortunately I have some Polish travel blogger friends. And they made the strong suggestion that I find a way to include Wroclaw (pronounced Vrohts-wahf) in our monthlong itinerary. So we did. In fact, we spent an entire week in Wroclaw. And I’m happy I listened to them! Here’s all the reasons you should consider visiting Wroclaw Poland too.
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Contents
A Scenic Old Town
Wroclaw’s Old Town (Stare Miasto in Polish) is considered one of Poland’s most beautiful historic centers. And though we didn’t visit every Old Town in Poland, Wroclaw’s Stare Miasto was my personal favorite throughout our travels in the country.
The central feature of Old Town Wroclaw is its Rynek or Market Square. This medieval square is one of the largest Market Squares in all of Europe, and was founded in the 13th century. While most of its original medieval buildings no longer exist, the current structures are still centuries-old. And fortunately, they escaped significant destruction during World War II.
The Market Square is surrounded by an outer ring of colorful townhomes called burgher houses. Most of these now feature ground floor restaurants and cafes. And in the corner you’ll find a huge 13th century Gothic church – the Church of St Elizabeth.
The inner ring features additional burgher houses, and important municipal buildings too. Including Wroclaw’s original (and amazing) medieval Old Town Hall.
Wroclaw’s Old Town also features a second smaller town square, located diagonal and adjacent to the Market Square. This is Salt Square, and during the Middle Ages it was home to a salt market. Nowadays, it is instead filled with flower vendor’s stalls (and more restaurants).
And Wroclaw’s Old Town is more than just its historic Squares. You’ll certainly want to wander through its side streets and back alleys while visiting Wroclaw. You’ll find plenty of beauty and charm in those areas of Old Town, too.
A Cathedral Island
I didn’t include a dedicated photo of the gothic Market Square church in the last section, because Wroclaw has more than one grand church. And so I saved my church photos for now. Because my favorite church in Wroclaw is this one…the magnificent St. John the Baptist Archcathedral (also know simply as Wroclaw Cathedral.)
This Gothic masterpiece was built 13th & 14th centuries. It has been restored several time since then, due to fires and war, but that doesn’t take away from its magnificence. We decided that it’s now a favorite from our travels through Europe.
It’s located in a section of Wroclaw that’s actually older than Old Town. This part of town is called Cathedral Island or Ostrow Tumski in Polish. It’s where Wroclaw’s first permanent residents built their settlement in the 10th century – on an island located between two branches of the Oder River.
And while Cathedral Island is no longer an island (one of those river branches was filled in with soil at some point), it’s still a magical place nonetheless.
In addition to the Wroclaw Cathedral, you’ll find several other churches, stately old buildings (including the Archbishop’s house), and cobblestone streets. It has far fewer restaurants and shops than Old Town, so it’s much quieter here. Cathedral Island was very close to our apartment rental, and I spent more time here than anywhere in Wroclaw. It was my favorite section of town. (Here’s a link to our rental – the location was awesome.)
And…Cathedral Island is one of only two places in Europe that still has a Lamplighter.
He comes out every night at dusk and manually lights all of Cathedral Island’s gas street lamps using a long torch. Very very cool!
The Venice of Poland
Wroclaw was first settled on a river island as I just mentioned – the Oder River in southwest Poland. And this riverside location is a big part of what makes Wroclaw so charming. In fact, Wroclaw is nicknamed The Venice of Poland due to its waterways, its multiple river islands, and its many bridges.
A highlight of visiting Wroclaw is certainly spending time relaxing at one of its many riverside parks or cafes. And there are plenty of opportunities to spend time on the water too – whether in a tour boat, water ferry, or rental kayak.
Plus Wroclaw has a moat! During the Middle Ages, water from the Oder was diverted to create two sequential moats around the town center – a very effective defense, especially when combined with Wroclaw’s medieval town walls.
Nowadays, the walls are gone…Napoleon tore them down after conquering the city. But the outer moat still exists and surrounds a significant portion of lower Old Town. A city promenade and park now run parallel to it – a delightful place for a stroll.
Museums Aplenty
If you like museums, then you will certainly not have any difficulty filling your time while visiting Wroclaw. The city has dozens. Here’s a look at the museums we visited during our week in town.
The City Museum of Wroclaw
This museum is a must-visit if you want to develop a deeper understanding of Wroclaw’s complicated 1000 year old history. It’s housed in an 18th century Baroque building that once served as a Royal Palace for the Prussian Monarchy.
The museum is quite large and the self-guided route takes you through Wroclaw’s complete history, from the founding of Cathedral Island through to the downfall of Communism in Poland.
And Wroclaw’s history is very very fascinating. Though originally Polish, it changed hands many times over the centuries. I just mentioned its Prussian period, which followed Austrian rule. Hungary and Napoleon both had turns. For various long stretches, it was a German city name Breslau.
And then after WW2, it was restored back to Poland. All the Germans were kicked out, its name changed back to Wroclaw, and it was completely repopulated with Poles and Ukrainians.
My head is spinning just trying to summarize it.
University of Wroclaw Museum
The University of Wroclaw dates all the way back to the 1700s when it was originally founded as the University of Breslau. It’s the largest university in southwest Poland. The university’s historic main building also houses a museum. The highlights of this museum are two grand Baroque halls including the one pictured below – the Aula Leopoldina.
And the Mathematical Tower. This is a building-top 18th century Astronomical Observatory that offers some pretty great views out across all of Wroclaw – views shared with a statue situated at each corner.
Old Jewish Cemetery
Like many cities in this part of the world, Wroclaw has a deep (and ultimately tragic) Jewish history. One of the city’s Jewish cemeteries has been designated as a museum in and of itself. We love visiting cemeteries when we travel, and jumped at the chance to wander through this one.
The Old Jewish Cemetery was founded in the mid 1800s and was the primary resting place for what-was-then-Breslau’s Jewish population. Burials took place here up until World War II, at which point another Jewish cemetery was established in town.
You do pay a small fee to enter this cemetery-museum, and it is a little bit away from the town center, but it is very much worth a visit. You’ll wander through old headstones, overgrown by dense green foliage. And you’ll find large monuments, erected by the town’s wealthier Jewish families.
Museum of Contemporary Art
Wroclaw has several museums featuring Polish art, and we chose to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s housed in a UNESCO World Heritage building called the Four Domes Pavillion. This museum offers a relatively small but impressive display of mostly 20th century Polish art.
And while we’d visited the huge contemporary-themed Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid just a few months back, I very much enjoyed this smaller and significantly less crowded museum, featuring artists whom I’ve never heard of.
Meaningful Street Art
While you’ll find lots of great art to admire indoors in Wroclaw, you’ll also find plenty of great art on the streets when visiting Wroclaw.
The Passage
This is one of the most powerful street sculptures I’ve ever seen. It is also called the Monument to the Anonymous Passerby. The Passage is located just south of Old Town on two adjacent city block corners. On one side of the street, a group of people descend into the ground…
On the other side of the street, another group rises up from the ground. If you look close in the photo below, you’ll see the descending group across the street.
This work by Polish artist Jerzy Kalina was installed in Wroclaw in 2005, on the 24th anniversary of the introduction of martial law in Poland – a reaction by the Communist government to the growing popularity of the Solidarity Movement. It commemorates the underground activists who fought the oppressive State during those very difficult 1.5 years.
We saw several representations of this sculpture in various Polish history museums throughout the country. But the most visually meaningful version is here on the city streets of Wroclaw.
Cristal Planet
This statue of a woman wearing a globe is located at the entrance to a section of Wroclaw called the Four Denominations District. In this small district, you’ll find houses of worship for four different faiths – Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant. The district is strong representation of respect, tolerance, and unity. And the Cristal Planet sculpture reflects that theme.
Interestingly, in addition to its Churches, the Four Denominations District is also one of the best places for nightlife in Wroclaw with a high concentration of popular pubs and nightclubs.
The City Dwarfs
While visiting Wroclaw, you will find small statues of dwarfs…everywhere. In fact, Wroclaw is quite famous for its dwarfs. It’s estimated that there are 700 different small dwarf statues around the city.
How did this come to be? Similar to The Passage, the first dwarf in Wroclaw was placed to help memorialize a Communist-resistance group called Orange Alternative. One of their symbols was a dwarf, and the group would spray dwarf graffiti around Poland in protest.
After the first Wroclaw dwarf, a few others were placed around town, each with a different theme. Then over the ensuing years, the dwarfs multiplied around town like rabbits. Seemingly every major business, institution, or site now has its own small representative dwarf statue nearby.
If you want, you can purchase a dwarf map at the Wroclaw tourism office. We saw many families with kids out dwarf hunting.
Colorful Backyards on Nadodrze
Nadodrze is a residential area located just north of old town. It’s considered the up-and-coming hipster part of Wroclaw. Some of the buildings though are quite drab. So the residents decided to liven things up a bit.
In the interior courtyards and parking areas of multiple housing units in this area, you’ll find that the entire lower levels are now covered in art – both paint and ceramics.
You actually have to walk through the streetside access tunnels in order to see these “backyards”. The tunnels are highly decorated too.
It’s all unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and well worth a visit. Here’s a link to the general area for these housing developments on Google Maps.
Unique Wroclaw Eats
If you love discovering local food like I do, then you’ll be pleased with your choices when visiting Wroclaw. But the city does have some unique options that you may want to prioritize during your culinary explorations.
Kynsa at Bistro Nadodrze
A must-try is the city’s own street food invention called the Knysza. It first started to appear on the streets of Wroclaw during the late Communist Era when street food choices were limited (and before the arrival of McDonald’s and other fast food chains).
A Kynsza is a bread pocket, filled to the brim with fresh vegetables, a protein of choice (mine below has a breaded pork cutlet) and covered in fried onions. Plus it’s topped with choice of sauce (garlic sauce for me). They are huge! And delicious!
The most iconic place to get a Kysna in Wroclaw is at Bistro Nadodrze. It’s located just outside a rundown train station in the Nadodrze neighborhood (making it the perfect place to stop after viewing the backyard street art).
We found it very busy at lunch time, despite its rather isolated location. The one woman operating the place was extremely friendly. She spoke no English, but we successfully worked out all of our order details using translate apps on our phones.
As best I could tell, the train station is no longer in use (except for maybe one platform?), though it does have a prominent role in Wroclaw/Breslau’s darker history. It’s the station from which the city’s Jewish population was deported to concentration camps during WW2.
Toast at Bar Witek
I read a Google review from a Wroclaw local that basically stated – “if you are visiting Wroclaw and don’t eat at Bar Witek, it’s as if you haven’t visited Wroclaw at all”.
This is obviously then another iconic Wroclaw establishment that needs to be on your radar – especially if you are a mushroom lover like I am. Bar Witek is famous for its Toasts. It’s located in Old Town, and like Bistro Nadodrze, it was also very busy when I visited.
These toasts feature a pile of mushrooms…and I mean A Pile…plus lots of gooey cheese. You can either choose to get the basic with only those two ingredients. Or add to it. Mine in the photo above also features sausage and grilled onions.
The Best Pierogis in Poland?
And what about pierogis in Wroclaw? Pierogis are probably the most famous and popular of all Polish dishes – a boiled dumpling stuffed with various fillings and served with sour cream. And I did eat my fair share of pierogis during our month in Poland.
So where did I find the best pierogis in Wroclaw? At a small unassuming place on the edge of Old Town called Pierogarnia Ze Smakiem.
This tiny pierogarnia has only three tables. At the front counter, two women are constantly making their delicious pierogis in front of you while you dine.
And this pierogi-only restaurant offers a unique selection of pierogi fillings. While they do offer traditional fillings (combinations of potato, cheese, mushrooms, onions, or sauerkraut), they also have some less typical offerings too. These include the black squid ink pierogis below that were stuffed with salmon, feta, lemon, and dill.
Those beauties were not only the best pierogis I ate in Wroclaw, but the best pierogis I ate in Poland.
Easy Public Transportation
When visiting Wroclaw, you’ll find that it’s very easy to get around.
Wroclaw is a very walkable city. If you are staying centrally, you can walk to most key sites within 20 minutes or so.
For further distances, or if you get tired of walking, there’s a network of trams.
We used the trams frequently, and Google Maps provided us with all the information we needed for routes, connections, and times.
You can purchase tickets from machines located near most major stops. The machines have an English language option, and you can use either card or cash. You can buy single ride tickets, or passes for various lengths of time. We purchased 7 day passes and they only cost 14 USD each. (Note that you must validate your tickets using a yellow validation machine inside the tram with first use.)
Uber also operates in Wroclaw and is quite inexpensive. For example, an Uber ride from the main train station to our apartment rental, located just north of Cathedral Island, was only around 5 USD.
Getting to Wroclaw
Since Wroclaw is the Poland’s third largest city, it does have its own airport with international arrivals.
But, since we were visiting Wroclaw as part of a more extensive Poland itinerary, we traveled to Wroclaw via train.
Our train ride from Warsaw to Wroclaw took about 5 hours and was quite comfortable. We do love train travel in Europe, and our experience on the Polish trains was on par with our experiences elsewhere in the EU (like the time we traveled between Vienna and Budapest).
In fact, I have an entire blog post filled with useful tips for using the Polish train system to get around Poland.
Final Thoughts
So, is Wroclaw worth visiting? As I’m sure is obvious now….Absolutely!
It’s a beautiful riverside city, full of interesting history, great architecture, meaningful art, and delicious food.
And thanks to my Polish travel blogger friends Sonia and Wojtek for suggesting we visit Wroclaw so convincingly. You should check out their own Wroclaw post for an extensive overview of essentially every single thing to do in Wroclaw. We couldn’t see it all during our week in town.
I also recommend checking out WorclawGuide.com. It’s a blog exclusively dedicated to Wroclaw, and it served as another very useful guide for our time in the city. Even though I’m The Thorough Tripper, I found that I didn’t need to spend nearly as much time tripping in Wroclaw thanks to its recommendations, especially when it came to dining choices.
If you would like to read more about our travels in Poland, then check out these posts:
12 Things You Shouldn’t Miss While Visiting Gdansk
A Perfect Day Trip from Gdansk to Malbork Castle
Or you can read more about other locations we’ve visited in Central Europe by checking out these posts:
10 Essential Budapest Travel Tips
Thanks for this most illuminating and enticing piece, Steve! So fun to keep up with your adventures!
This is great and thanks for the links.