LET'S EXPLORE POLAND

Copyright 1997 by the AngloPol Corporation

This series will take us through the cities, towns, villages and countryside of Poland, 
as well as give us insights into the rich history and culture of the nation.

Part 23

EASTERN POLAND

MORE ABOUT TORUN

We are spending more time exploring Torun than most cities, because it seems that Polish Americans are not as familiar with this interesting city as with other locales. Torun may not have an elegant Marriott Hotel to welcome visitors, but it does offer a wealth of history and culture.

ON THE ISLAND

Across from the Old Town is an island called Kepa Bazarowa. Its riparian forest is home to many rare species of birds and other small animals. In order to protect them, a part of the island, which was least affected by human presence, has been designated a nature preserve. The primeval forest growing on the island has obliterated all traces of human presence and yet Kepa once used to teem with life. For many hundreds of years it was a convenient place for crossing the Vistula [Wisla]. From the 16th to the 19th century, there was a bridge connecting the island with the river bank, and a road leading through the Bridge Gate to the Old Town center. The bridge consisted of solid wooden pillars and platforms, with drawbridge sections to enable navigation.

The residences of rich merchants, trading with distant countries, e.g., Flanders, have not survived to our times. Neither have the huts that for many centuries offered shelter to partacze (people illegally plying various trades) outside the official guild structure. The island was a convenient place for concluding commercial transactions; the fact is reflected both in the existing written records and the very name of the place. During the last century the island acquired another concurrent name: Malpi Gaj [Monkey Grove]--it was a place where prostitutes sought asylum, of their own accord or by the Town Council's order.

Lush vegetation has almost totally obscured the outline of fortifications dating back to the 1600 and 1700s. Once the system formed a fortified bridgehead fiercely defended during the two Swedish invasions and the Napoleonic war.

THE DYBOW CASTLE, NIESZAWA, PODGORZ

At the end of the Middle Ages, another autonomous urban unit appeared within the area of today's Torun, in addition to the Old and New Town, their suburbs, and Kepa Bazarowa. Around the year 1425, on the left bank of the Vistula, not far from the present-day road bridge, the Polish king Wladyslaw Jagiello ordered the erection of a castle for a royal burgrave. Soon the place attracted many settlers and a whole new town emerged with its own harbor, foreign traders' offices, inns and taverns. A parish church of St. Nicholas was erected. The settlement has been known under several different names: the Nieszawa Castle, Dybow, the Dybow Castle and Nieszawa. The last name prevailed until Torun's inhabitants, threatened by the competition created by the new town, persuaded King Casimir Jagiellonczyk to relocate the town about 40 kilometers up the river, where it still exists under the name of Nieszawa.

Its convenient location was the reason why, despite the destruction of the town hall, stalls and numerous other buildings, the settlement around the castle was spontaneously revived a number of times. However, as the area was regularly flooded by the Vistula, around the mid-16th century, its inhabitants moved to higher ground, further from the river. The newly-established settlement was called "Podgorz" and is now one of Torun's suburbs. Here in 1644, Stanislaw Sokolowski, the Dybow governor and Bydgoszcz castellan, founded a Baroque church and a convent and handed them over to the Order of Reformati. During the Swedish "deluge" King John Casimir made the convent his headquarters from whence he commanded the troops when they recaptured Torun.

On many occasions the Dybow castle served as a residence for Polish monarchs and their courtiers. Unfortunately, during the first Swedish war, it was seriously damaged by a gunpowder explosion and has never returned to its former splendor. However, as recently as 1813, a few dozen Frenchmen who had taken shelter inside it were able to withstand Russian attacks for three months. The earthen fortifications built up by the Napoleonic soldiers have survived to this day.

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS' BIRTHPLACE

At the beginning of the 16th century Jerzy Joachim Retyk, Nicolaus Copernicus' friend and student wrote in his Praise of Prussia that "in the olden days Torun was known for its trade and now it is famous for its great son and my master." Despite the passage of many centuries, the statement has not lost validity. This fact was confirmed by the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Copernicus' birth. The brilliant astronomer was born on 19 February 1473 in a building on Ul. Sw. Anny St. [St. Ann St.], now Ul. Kopernika [Copernicus St.] Although he only spent his childhood and the early years of his adulthood here, Torun was the town which first formed his personality. He must have been positively affected by the atmosphere pervading Torun at the end of the 15th century, where affluence, reverence for true knowledge, adoration for beauty and appreciation of the audacity of human initiatives prevailed.

Nicolaus Copernicus [Mikolaj Kopernik] probably began his education in the school of the parish Church of SS Johns, where Lucas Watzenrode, Nicolaus' uncle and protector was the rector. The school was located in a today's Ul. Sw. Jana [St. John St.], formerly Ul. Szkolna [Scholastic St.] At the end of the 17th century, the building was incorporated into a Jesuit college complex built at that time. The 19th century saw a complete reconstruction of the edifice to suit the requirements of the Prussian troops. Today only a small fragment of a late Gothic decoration pattern on the ground floor facade reminds the visitor of the medieval school founded and maintained with pride by the Town Council.

HISTORIC TOWN HOUSES

Various traces of the daily life of Torun's former citizens can be seen in over 300 surviving historic buildings. Most of them were constructed during the Middle Ages but, as fashion and tastes changed, they subsequently obtained Renaissance, Baroque, classicist or neo-historical decor. In effect, only a few dozen pure Gothic elevations, gables, portals, ceilings, or wall polychromes can still be seen in today's Torun. There are, of course, many others hidden under layers of paint and plaster, mostly dating back to the latter half of the 19th century.

At the close of the Middle Ages nearly all buildings within the Old and New Town were brick structures. Only a small percentage had wooden frameworks filled with bricks or clay. All houses-granaries and other edifices had steep roofs covered with tiles, often multicolored.

In the 14th century, the prevailing type of town house in Torun combined dwelling, trading, and storage functions in a way which was characteristic of northern Europe from Bruges to Tallin. The main rooms on the ground floor were called "high anterooms." In their corners, there were hearths crowned with large hoods. Behind the anteroom, there was only one room and there were two more rooms on the next floor. The other floors, as well as the cellars, were used for storage, usually serving as granaries. Few houses had outbuildings. For many centuries the municipal authorities did not allow erecting them for fear of fires.

THE OLD TOWN HALL

Torun's Old Town Hall, one of the prime examples of European medieval burgher architecture, is the testimony of its growth and high position among other merchant towns. As was common practice at that time, the hall was constructed in stages. First, in 1259, a merchant house and a cloth hall were built in the middle of the town square. Later, between 1274 and 1279, bread benches and stalls, a tower, and the first town hall, a courthouse and town-scales were added. At that stage, all the buildings were separate structures. In 1343 lean-to stalls were added around the merchant house and in 1385 the tower was raised up to its present height. Then in 1393, when the Council was granted the privilege to construct a new town hall, all those separate elements were joined into a two-story quadrangle.

The work was carried out by Master Andrzej. In the town's archives, there is a complaint lodged against him, stating that "he did not employ German journeymen." This new structure had vast cellars, where beer from the town breweries was sold and drunk.

In 1603, on the initiative of the town's mayor, H. Stroband, the Town Hall was thoroughly rebuilt. A third floor combining Renaissance details and Gothic forms was constructed. Thus the historical character of the edifice was preserved, probably because of the desire to stress the continuity of the time-honored institutions.

In 1703, during another siege of the town by the Swedes during the Northern War, the Town Hall burnt down in a fire caused by shelling. A similar fate was shared by several dozen other Old Town buildings.

Following the fire, because of the general crisis of the municipal economy, the Council could not undertake to rebuild its hall for a number of years. The reconstruction was completed in 1737, but unfortunately the interiors never regained their former magnificence. The artistry of Torun's eminent craftsmen who had been invited to make their contribution to the new construction can still be seen in the beautifully inlaid door.