TORUŃ CITY

What a town!

One of the oldest in Poland, a gothic pearl, enscribed on UNESCO World Relics List. A town, in which people who moved the Earth from its basics were born: Nicolaus Copernicus – astronomer who discovered that Earth revolves round the Sun; Thomas Soemmering – a scientist who built the predecessor of SMS, the first telegraph in the world; Fryderyk Skarbek – economist and artist who discovered that the skeletons of woman and man differ; Samuel Bogumił Linde – a man who wrote the first dictionary of Polish language, or Bogusław Linda – actor, who revolutionized Polish cinema, becoming the first tough guy of our screens.

Indeed – the film! We have huge film traditions, for In Toruń there were made the films by Oscar-nominee Jerzy Hoffman ["The Law and the Fist"] or European cinema star Andrzej Seweryn ["Who Never Lived"]. Also here, numerous Polish films and TV-series were made – among them, the first scenes of cult Polish film "The Cruise/Rejs" by Marek Piwowski.

Well-known Polish actors come from here – already mentioned Bogusław Linda, the Dame of Polish screen Grażyna Szapołowska, or the popular television and theatre actress Małgorzata Kożuchowska. And – of course – TOFIFEST was born here.

We invite you – come and meet our town.

INFO ABOUT TORUN

DOWNLOAD/ŚCIĄGNIJ

Websites about Toruń:
TORUŃ TOURISTIC [in english] http://www.visittorun.pl
TOURIST PORTAL - the best source with information about Toruń: http://www.turystyka.torun.pl/
CITY HALL: http://www.um.torun.pl

THE STORY OF TORUŃ

The story of Toruń dates back to the turn of the 8th and the 9th centuries, when on the site of the later Teutonic Castle a stronghold and a commercial fortified colony were established. Several hundred years later Prince Conrad I the Mazovian issued an edict by the force of which the Teutonic Order received Chełmno Land. The first Teutonic Knights settled on the left bank of the Vistula River in 1230. They soon built a stronghold in the vicinity of present Nieszawa. A year later the Knights of the Order crossed the river.  In 1233 the Grand Master of the Order Herman von Salza and the Order’s Prussian governor and the Provincial Leader Herman Balk issued a foundation charter for the town of Toruń. Three years later the town was moved upriver in place of an earlier Slavonic colony. In 1280 Toruń became a significant member of the Hanseatic League of trade guilds representing medieval cities. The archives of the so-called Prussian chapter of the Hanse were kept in the Old Town Hall.

In the 13th and the 14th centuries Toruń rated among Europe’s leading commercial centres (exporting mainly forest goods and copper and importing herring, salt, spices and cloth). Among frequent visitors to Toruń were merchants from Hungary, Russia, Lithuania, Scandinavia and even from as far as the Middle East who were on their way to Flanders, Westphalia and Silesia. The Vistula port of Toruń received seafaring merchant ships. In the late 14th century the town enjoyed a period of dynamic growth and prosperity. With its population reaching 13,000, Toruń was the only emporium that acted as a go-between in trade of Poland and Western Europe. It was also a big centre of art and craftsmanship. Here were built cobblestone streets several metres’ wide, brick tenements five-window tall and majestic fortified churches able to give shelter to thousands of believers.
 
The great construction rush of that time and a constant influx of people created favourable conditions for the development of craftsmanship and production answering the growing needs of the inhabitants of the town. The first mills were built in the area approaching the castle. In the 13th century a brickyard was opened by the Teutonic Order on the Struga Toruńska (a Vistula-bound stream running through the town). Most probably at the same time or not much later three other municipal brickyards were set up on the Vistula. The town started expanding into suburbs populated by less affluent artisans: wheelwrights, potters, smiths, beekeepers, porters and carriers. Many streets that have not survived were named after names of those jobs. Near the port – close to the Convent Gate – there was a shipyard where smaller boats fit for river trade were built. Between the town and the village of Kaszczorek on the Vistula there spread terraced vineyards owned by the most affluent merchants. The local youth  travelled all over Europe, studying in Göttingen, Munich, Nuremberg, Padua, Leiden and Bologna.
It was here where real business was done!
 
In 1457 Toruń became a royal town. The Teutonic rule was coming to an end. Nine years later the Second Treaty of Toruń ending the Thirteen Years’ War was signed in the Old Town Hall. The Treaty put an end to the Teutonic State in its former shape; its western part became Royal Prussia, an autonomous province of the Polish Kingdom. Toruń’s former privileges were confirmed. In addition, the town was granted a royal title, thus becoming one of three Great Prussian Towns, besides Gdańsk and Elbląg. The town was given full autonomy and legal and political rights entitling it to be often called an independent burghers’ republic. As members of the Prussian Council, patricians of Toruń, Gdańsk and Elbląg had the same rights as noblemen of the Republic of Poland to become members of the Seym (Parliament). An interesting fact testifying to the power of medieval Toruń is the fact that the people of Toruń allotted 200 thousand grzywnas (medieval monetary unit) or a sum amounting to the 80-year budgetary income of Krakow of that time and the 250-year income of Poznań!

On 19 February 1473, in a house in St. Anne Street, Nicholas Copernicus was born to later become a great astronomer, mathematician, economist and the author of  De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, one of the most sensational and significant academic works in the history of the world.

At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries the town enjoyed its second economic and cultural boom. Toruń was given the name of the Queen of the Vistula. The municipality had a considerable share in the river trade; craftsmanship developed (clothiery, goldsmithery); the town minted coins. Toruń was on merchant trails connecting Russia and Lithuania with the Wielkopolska region (Great Poland) and Germany. The town’s population rose to ca 20,000. Culture and science thrived. Outstanding scholars that no university would shy from employing lectured in the famous Academic Gymnasium. Considering its impressive collection, the Gymnasium library could compete with the most famous and the richest European library collections. Here was published Instituto Literata – world’s first scientific periodical.

1645 saw an unprecedented event. The most famous European theologians visited the town to take part in the Colloquium Charitativum, a convention that was to bring Catholics and Protestants together. Although the debates failed to reconcile followers of different Christian faiths, the news of the event echoed throughout Europe plagued with various dramatic religious clashes.

Following the Second Partition of Poland, the merchant town of Toruń smelling of gingerbread, wine and grain fell under Prussian rule and became a frontier town. The changing course of events (the Napoleonic wars) and several years that followed took its toll among the people of Toruń until the time when, by the terms of the Congress of Vienna, Toruń was incorporated to the Prussian State in 1815.
 
In the 19th century first tourists started arriving in Toruń mainly to see such curiosities as the Leaning Tower, the House of Nicholas Copernicus and the magnificent Old Town Hall. Toruń won over Napoleon Bonaparte and charmed Frederic Chopin, who wrote: ‘I have seen Gothic churches and buildings founded by the Teutonic Knights, one of which was built in 1231. I have also seen the leaning tower as well as the famous town hall, which I saw from the outside and from the inside and whose most interesting feature is that it has as many windows as there are days in the year, as many halls as there are months, as many rooms as there are weeks and that its whole Gothic-style shape is most magnificent. All that, however, cannot possibly surpass the taste of gingerbread, oh the gingerbread, of which I’ve sent a sample to Warsaw’. The town was famous for its Mock Gothic architecture, similar to what one can see in Cologne, Göttingen, Frankfurt or Strasbourg.
 
On 18 January 1920 a white and red flag was hung from the tower of the Old Town Hall. After 127 years Toruń was again a Polish town enjoying the status of the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship (Province). Freed from the chains of being a fortress (in the 19th century it was one of the biggest European strongholds), it soon rapidly developed; over the period of twenty years that followed, its population nearly doubled and new urban and architectural changes were introduced in the town. From a pre-war fortress, the town gradually developed into a modern centre of administration and culture. Many new provincial offices and institutions were formed. The regional broadcasting station of Polish Radio was set up. In 1923 a newly established Municipal Library took over the ownership or kept on deposit many previously scattered collections of manuscripts and academic publications. The municipal theatre played a very important role in the cultural life of the town. In the years 1920-1939 the company had ca 700 premieres.

After Word War II Toruń lost its status of a provincial capital. It became an academic town instead. On 24 August 1945 the Council of Ministers of Poland issued a decree to form Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The Alma Mater of Toruń brings back the glorious traditions of Stefan Batory University in Vilnius and also Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv dissolved after the war. Over the period of the last sixty years the university has reached the rank of one of the most important academic institutions and research and educational centres in Poland. At present NCU has a student population exceeding 40,000. In the years 1967-1973 the Bielany campus was built. The university gained a modern university library, new buildings housing lecture rooms, student hostels and a new building housing the rector’s office and administrative staff. Since then the university has expanded considerably.
 
On the strength of the administrative reform of 1975, Toruń became a seat of provincial administration again, which did not help Toruń in its development, however. The political changes of 1989 in Poland turned out to be more important than local ambitions.
In the 1990s Toruń regained its former status as a very important cultural centre – the theatre and film festivals organized in Toruń became established and Toruń became a very important place on the tourist map of Poland and Europe. That had demanded a lot of effort to promote the town and its assets both in Poland and abroad. The fact that the Medieval Town of Toruń was included on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 1997 proves that those efforts had not remained unseen.
 
In 1999 Poland went through yet another administrative reform. Out of the existing 49 voivodeships only 16 remained. Together with Bydgoskie and Włocławskie, Toruń and the Toruńskie Voivodeship was incorporated to the Kujawsko-pomorskie Voivodeship. In the new arrangement, Toruń became one of the two capital cities of the region housing the provincial self-government.

Toruń is a city vibrant with life. Among its Gothic buildings are held large-scale and small-scale open-air shows. Medieval towers still have their lodgers. In halls covered in unique polychromes work office workers and bank clerks. Restaurant patrons sit under Renaissance ceilings. Tourists explore the historic streets of the Old Town. Music can be heard day and night. The bustling Old Town Market still remains the favourite meeting place. Pubs and wineries are open late at night until the last customer decides to leave. Toruń is a festival town: “Kontakt” International Theatre Festival, “Probaltica ” International Festival of the Baltic States’ Music and Art, Toruń – Music and Architecture Summer Festival, Toruń Summer Film Festival, The TOFFIFEST International Film Festival, Jazz Od Nowa Festival, Artus Jazz Festival, Toruń Festival of Science and Art and many events of this kind. And this is what our city is about!

Tekst from website WWW.TORUN2016.EU
 

"Toruń is so splendid with its beautiful buildings and roofs covered with glistening fire bricks that it seems nothing can equal its beauty, location or luminous glamour.”
Jan Długosz, Historiae Polonicae Liber I, 1450 r.