Cosmopolis Fountain

more A peculiar Copernicus-related memorial, referring to the 8th page of his major work "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" and modeled on his heliocentric system is the Cosmopolis Fountain on the commons behind the Harmonica building. The fountain consists of 113 water nozzles, located on the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The water stream ejected from the central nozzle, symbolizing the Sun, reaches the height of 5 m, while those of the orbit nozzles – 4.5m.
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The Vistula Panorama of Torun

more The charm and harmony when viewing Torun from the Vistula river make this panorama one of Torun symbols and distinctive features. The panorama can be fully admired from the viewpoint in Majdany street, on the left river bank. Here, in the past, was, non-existent at present, bridge, linked with the Bridge Gate on the Old Town side.
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Nicolaus Copernicus University

more Nicolaus Copernicus University (UMK) in Torun, founded in 1945, is the largest university in Northern Poland in regard to its scientific potential, as well as to the number of fields of study offered, forms of education, and numbers of students and graduates. For the past few years, UMK has been ranked one of the top five Polish universities. This position is confirmed by a high level of research and teaching offers.
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Orbitarium

more The Orbitarium is a new, original Torun idea of space popularisation. The basis for its conception was the mission of the space probe Cassini, whose main aim was to examine Saturn, its satellites and to drop a lander called Huygens onto the biggest of the planet’s moons - Titan. Nowadays everyone knows that the mission was successful and we all had a chance to admire breathtaking views of that mysterious, although not very friendly world. On January 14th, 2005, when the landing took place, the Channel One (Jedynka) of Polish Television gave a live transmission, and the Orbitarium’s hall was a television studio.
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Planetarium

more One of the biggest tourist attractions in Torun is Planetarium, named after Wl. Dziewulski. It is the most technically advanced planetarium in Poland. Due to its characteristic architectural design - the semicircular dome and rotunda shape, the building is easily recognisable among other structures of Torun Old Town. Planetarium has been working since 17th February 1994. Its main activity is to show astronomical presentations covering wide range of topics in the field of astronomy.
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The Torun Fortress

more In Torun there is a military monument of the highest rank - one of the most immense systems of fortifications in Poland, built by Prussians at the end of 19th century to defend the western border of Prussia. This system was built in Torun due to its strategic location - the city was situated at that time on the border line of Prussia and Russia, which border ran along the Drweca river. Thanks to Prussian fortifications Torun was added to the list of cities-fortresses.[Torun]

The City Walls

more The beginning of the construction of the municipal walls in Torun dates back to the 1360s. The commercial city that was growing rich and was an important military and administrative centre of the state of the Teutonic Order was surrounded by a system of brick walls, tower dungeons, gates and moats, from which many have remained till today. The fortifications of the New City of Torun were considerably more modest - from the southeastern side there were the walls and St. Jacob’s Gate, and the main entrance to the city from the East was St. Catherine’s Gate (the crossing of today's St. Catherine and Szuman streets).[Torun]

Bridge Gate

more Bridge Gate is originally called the Transit gate or the Ferry gate. It owes its name to the crossing on the Vistula River by which it was situated. The current name comes after the permanent bridge built in the years 1497-1500 by Piotr Postill from Budziszyn. For a long time, the bridge in Torun remained a second bridge on the Vistula River, after the bridge in Krakow.[Torun]

Monastery Gate

more Monastery Gate is one of the eight gates which guarded the entrance to the Old Town in the Middle Ages. It was erected in the first half of XIV century, and new storeys were added in early XV century, due to the development of firearms. It owes its name to the benedictine monastery with a hospital and the Holy Spirit church which stood by the gate outside town walls till the XVII century. That is why the gate is also called the Holy Spirit gate.
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Dybowski Castle

more Dybowski Castle was erected on the left bank of the Vistula by Wladysław Jagiello as the seat of the Polish starosts and a strategic military point to the enforcement of the traffic control on the Vistula and the Polish-Teutonic border. Its construction began probably around 1423-1425, but already in the first period it was rebuilt several times. In 1998-2000 complex archaeological works of the Dybowski Castle were conducted by a team under the direction of Lidia Grzeszkiewicz-Kotlewska. The building was cleaned from the overgrowing bushes and superfluous soil layers.[Torun]

Artus House

more The neo-Renaissance edifice of the Artus House dates from 1891, but, as a matter of fact, it has been modeled on the former Artus House of 1386. The former building, renovated during the Renaissance in 1626 and during the Baroque in 1701, was one of the most impressive secular buildings in the city. It was the seat of St. George Brotherhood, active in Torun between 1311 and 1842, and other so-called ‘brotherhoods of the bench’ (which followed the tradition of sharing the same bench). Brotherhoods of this kind existed in all major cities of Hanseatic Europe and, in particular, in the Teutonic state.[Torun]

Church of St. James

more Located in a corner of the New City Market Square and towering over the New City, St. James’s Church is the New City’s gem. Erected in the first half of the fourteenth century. It is considered as one of the most valuable and interesting architectural achievements. It is a basilica-plan church (with the aisles lower than the nave), differing from other Torun’s Gothic churches also in that it uses a structure rarely employed in Poland: a free-standing aisle buttress attached to the nave by a flying buttress which transmits the thrust of the vault to the buttress.[Torun]

St. Mary's Church

more The post-Franciscan Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary erected in the second half of the 14th century, is one of the most outstanding artistic and architectural achievements of sacral architecture in Poland. In the 14th century it was the highest hall church in Central Europe with the naves and aisles 26.8 metre (88 feet) high. The church provided inspiration for the extension of St. Johns’ Church in Torun and St. Mary’s Church in Gdansk in the 15th century. According to the Franciscan rule, the church does not have a tower but three rather small ave-bell towers instead.[Torun]

Saint Johns' Cathedral

more Torun cathedral of saint John the Baptiser and saint John the Evangelist is the oldest Gothic church in the Land of Chelmno, the beginnings of which are connected with the moment of granting Torun the City Rights in 1233. The building of the church started shortly after trans-location of the city to its present location (1233-1236). At first the choir was built and the main aisle followed.[Torun]

Rafter’s Monument

more Rafter’s Monument is located in the western part of the Old Town Marketplace. It was created in 1914 by a German sculptor, Georg Wolf from Berlin. It was founded by wealthy citizens of Torun. The sculpture cast in bronze rests on a sandstone plinth. A well with 8 frogs sitting on its brim was also made of sandstone.
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The Leaning Tower

more The Leaning Tower is a medieval city tower, which owes its name to its substantial vertical deviation (1.40 m). It was built in the XIV century as a vertical, 15 meter tower merged into the system of town walls and placed on four-wall foundations, but the wall from the side of the town was not fully erected. A gallery for the guards connecting the tower to the town walls ran through openings in side walls and the lack of the internal wall allowed for easier hoisting of ammunition.
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Nicholas Copernicus Monument

more The statue of Nicholas Copernicus is situated in the Old Market square in front of the Old Town Hall. It dates from 1853. It was made by a sculptor from Berlin, Friedrich Abraham Tieck, commissioned by the German Copernican Society. The author of the idea of erecting of the statue of Nicholas Copernicus was Stanislaw Staszic. In 1809 cornerstone was even embedded under the monument and the national fund-raising for this project began.
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Town Hall

more Town Hall in Torun belongs to the most spectacular achievements of medieval urban architecture in Europe. As early as in XIII century, in the Old Town Market of dimensions 109x104 m, the following detached commercial and administrative buildings were erected: cloth halls, bread bakeries, a city scales, a court and a marketplace tower of 23 m in height. In late XIV century, the town received a privilege to build a Town Hall from the Grand Master of the Order of Teutonic Knights. In place of the abovementioned buildings, a new single-storey rectangular Town Hall of dimensions 43,7x52,4 m was erected.
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University Museum

more University Museum in Torun along the lines of similar institutions in the world connects elegant functions of the university with those of science, museum and education. Because of the relatively short history of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, it is not confined solely to document the history and achievements of Torun Alma Matris, but seeks to be an institution promoting culture and art of national and global scale, as well as for the purpose of teaching.
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Ethnographic Museum

more The Ethnographic Museum in Torun came into being 1st January 1959. Its creatress and the first long-term manager was professor Maria Znamierowska-Prufferowa, whom name, the museum has carried since 15th December 1999. The Ethnographic Museum in Torun is one out of three independent ethnographic museums in the country. It is the council institution of culture and it acts in the strength of museums act from the day 21st November 1996, and the Sejmik (the Sejm) of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Province is its organizer.[Torun]

Museum of Nicholas Copernicus

more Visiting The Museum of Nicholas Copernicus starts with the 18 minutes long performance: the light and sound presentation at the model of Torun from around 1500. The scenario of the performance, in 8 language versions, presents the most significant events in the history of the town, its architecture and the layout in the second half of the 15th century. It shows visitors dramatic events of wars between Poland and The Teutonic Knights` Order in the 15th century, and describes the role of town in the conflicts.[Torun]

Gingerbread Museum

more Gingerbread Museum is in Europe's only real-live Gingerbread Museum – a fully functional 16th century gingerbread factory. Museum is an intriguing and magical place, filled with the history of Torun and the scent of the famous gingerbread (Pierniki), which teaches (through fun and interaction) traditional gingerbread baking, giving joy and laughter for all visitors.
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