Must see in Wrocław: TOP 15 places

Wrocław offers a variety of great ways to spend time. However, there are some venues we strongly recommend you see. Don't leave the city without visiting the icons of Wrocław.

University of Wrocław / Shutterstock

Wroclaw University

Wroclaw University is Poland's second oldest university, after Jagiellonian University of Cracow. It is also one of Central Europe's oldest. It was established in 1702. However, it might have already been established by Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary 200 years earlier as the king signed the founding act of Silesian university in 1505, however Pope Julius II did not concede his permission to do so. It was the Jesuits and Emperor of Austria Leopold I who succeeded and this is why the first university name was Leopold's Academy. After the Order of Jesuits was dissolved in 1776, the university became a state institution. The important date is the year of 1811 when King Frederic Wilhelm III decided to merge Viadrina, declining academy of Frankfurt Oder, with Wroclaw Academy. After World War II the university was re-opened in 1945 and for the next 6 years it was a common institution of Wroclaw University and Technical University. A lot of personages are connected with the university e.g. Johann Galle (Planet Neptune discoverer) and 11 Nobel Prize winners, among them Theodor Mommsen (literature), Paul Ehrlich (medicine), Otto Stern, Max Born and Erwin Schrödinger (physics), Eduard Buchner and Friedrich Bergius (chemistry). Among its graduates there are some great poets and writers: Marek Krajewski, Adam Asnyk, Stanisław Grochowiak, Władysław Terlecki, Wojciech Żukrowski. At present it is Silesian's biggest university with nearly 40,000 students. The University's pride is its library with Poland's biggest collection of 31,000 units of antique books from years 1456 to 1800 and the architecture of the buildings. The gems are: Imperial Staircase, Mathematics Tower, Oratorium Marianum, and above all Leopold's Auditorium - the University's biggest and most magnificent part of the main building. Once the whole academy was dedicated to the founder's name, today it is just (or no less than) the auditorium. This hall is a masterpiece of secular Baroque. It was designed by Christophorus Tausch and created between 1728 and 1732. It delights with the splendour of its sculptures and paintings. The frescos were painted by Johann Christoph Handke of Ołomuniec, the sculptures were carved by Franz Joseph Mangdoldt. One becomes overwhelmed by illusionistic decoration which represents Act of Entrusting the University to Virgin Mary, Apotheosis of God's Wisdom and Earthly Wisdom. On the back wall which imitates Triumph Arch one can see Apotheosis of Emperor Leopold I, also honoured with a statue, sitting on a throne, wearing a suit of armour and holding attributes of imperial power. His two sons have also been honoured with statues: Joseph I and Charles VI. Over the professors' heads sitting in boxes there is a gallery of oval portraits of rulers and dignitaries of merit for the development of the university. Leopold's Auditorium is also famous for its magnificent acoustic and the most important events of academic life take place there.