What to see in Rzeszow?
The main attraction of Rzeszow is the Underground Tourist Route – the Rzeszow Cellars.
The underground tourist routes can be found in at least a few Polish cities. The Rzeszow Cellars will guide you under the Main Market Square, through corridors and rooms, which used to be the city’s warehouses. Especially for food, because of friendly temperature. But friendly for food means it’s a bit cold in there, so you should take at least a sweater.
Sightseeing with a guide lasts about 1 hour. It is worth purchasing a ticket earlier for a specific hour, so it doesn’t turn out that there’s no chance for sightseeing today. I know what I’m saying. I bought two last tickets for 4:00 p.m. Oh, and on Mondays it’s closed. Despite the fact, that a large part of the underground are modern brick inserts, and in some places the exhibit is not very revealing
(a carpenter’s workshop), it is still worth walking under the Market Square and listening about the city’s history.
After leaving the Underground, go straightly to Rzeszow’s Market Square
The Market Square in Rzeszow is alive! Its large part consists of pub gardens and I have to admit, that the crowd that I’ve met on a Sunday afternoon made me very surprised. The Market Square is surrounded by buildings from the 19th century, and place after place. Usually, the Old Town is an unnatural place visited by tourists, but here, there are a lot of citizens and plenty events.
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is the most interesting building of the Market Square in Rzeszow. Today, it is the location of the city office, and on the facade you can find a mix of the Neo-Gothic and the
Neo-Renaissance. The current shape of the facade was created in the late 19th century. As befits a good Town Hall, a bugle call is played every hour.
The Castle in Rzeszow
Today’s Castle is quite recent, because it was built at the beginning of the previous century. It is situated in a location, where defensive buildings were already built in the 16th century. Nowadays, it is the place of the District Court, previously a prison and a place of execution during World War II.
The Synagogues of Rzeszow in the Old Town and the New Town.
Before the War, 35% of Rzeszow’s citizens were Jews. Later, a ghetto was created here. Over the wartime, a total of 20 000 Jews werwe murdered in Rzeszow and its surroundings. The remains of their presence are two synagogues. And the Jewish name of Rzeszow – Rajsza.
The Old Town Synagogue, originally built in the 17th century, was devastated and burned during the war. But it was rebuilt right afterwards. Part of the building are the original defensive walls of Rzeszow, so don’t be surprised that the synagogue has a bastion.
The New Town Synagogue is bigger and was created in the early 18th century. It confronted a similar fate during the war, it’s enough to say that a stable was built inside. Both of the synagogues have almost no remains of the original interior.