Torun


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The market square

Torun is one of the few Polish cities which were not destroyed in World War II. The buildings you see here are as old as they look (unlike Gdansk, where the buildings are at most 50 years old, though appearing 300 years old).

Torun is actually two cities: the 'old' city and the 'new' city, which is only 25 years or so younger.

Church in Torun

The old city became soon too small, so outside the city walls a new city was built, with a new city hall and church. Until the walls were broken down, hundreds of years or so later, they acted as two cities.

CD-shop

School

Torun has one of the most famous universities of Poland. That has of course nothing to do with this picturesque sign (school).

The frog-fiddler of Torun

Everybody knows the story of the rat catcher of Hameln, where the man lured the rats from the city with his flute-music. In Torun there was a frog plague, and a fiddler. The story was never as famous as the one of Hameln, because here the man was properly paid and he left the children alone.

Copernicus

Another, more famous inhabitant of Torun, is Copernicus. He found that the sun doesn't circle the earth, but the earth circles the sun. The church didn't agree with this idea, and banned him or something.

In the bookstore we found that the Diskworld of Terry Pratchett is here a best seller. Does that mean anything?


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