Tourist routes in Wrocław: Along Odra
St. John's Cathedral, Wrocław / Shutterstock
Katedralna Street and Katedralny Square
As you leave Tumski Bridge, you arrive in OstrówTumski onto Katedralna Street which runs across the historical area until Katedralny Square and St. John The Baptist's Cathedral. This is why the street is called so. Right at the very beginning on the left there is a little Gothic St. Peter and Paul's Church and behind it there is a former orphanage whose Late Baroque building was founded by Bishop Neuburga in the 18th century. At Katedralna Street numerous palaces and houses can be admired which used to belong to clergy and church institutions. Looking chronologically: at number 7 Nicolas Copernicus stayed for a while, at number 9 there is Vice-chancellor's Office of Papal Faculty of Theology with a beautiful garden where in the middle there is a statue of Blessed Edmund Bojanowski surrounded by children. At number 11 there is Wroclaw Archbishop's Residence and at number 13 - Metropolitan Curia which is a former bishop's residence from the 15th and 16th century, built in place of the 13th century building, and redesigned in Classical style at the beginning of the 19th century. In front of the Cathedral it is worth stopping at 17th century Baroque statue of Immaculate Virgin Mary, having a look around the green square with its Baroque statue of Hercules fighting with a lion, and going up a small hill to enjoy the view of the left bank of the Oder River. This way we arrived at Katedralny Square which was created after demolishing the fortification and filling up a branch of the Oder. Its main attractions are Neo-Gothic building of Metropolitan Seminar, late Gothic house of chapter sessions linked by an arch with St. Giles' Church, and Diocese Museum where medieval paintings, sculptures, liturgical vessels and antique books (including the famous Book of Henry) are exhibited. There is also Poland's oldest 700-year-old bell. In the middle of the square since 2000 there has been Christ The King statue by Czesław Mazur.
St. John The Baptist Catholic Cathedral
It is undoubtedly Wroclaw's most precious monument of sacred architecture. It is over 1000 years old. Before the present Gothic church was erected in the 13th century, there had been three other churches in its place. The oldest one was built between 983 and 988 and resembled a Czech church in Libice, which was proved by historians. The next church was built of fieldstone bonded with clay in 1000 when Emperor Otto III and Pope Silvestre II established a diocese in Wroclaw. Such honour was a proof of the city's great importance which was growing to become a crucial centre of politics, economy and culture in the region. What is preserved from the third Romanesque basilica built from blocks of crystallized limestone are the elements of its portal, specifically - fragments of St. John The Baptist's figure which are exhibited in the Diocese Museum. Though the proverb goes "third time lucky", it was the fourth building which eventually turned out to last for over 750 years. It was in 1244 when the construction works were started in Gothic style, the first Gothic building in Wroclaw. Its architecture partly derives from Cistercian tradition. It took a long time to accomplish the task due to numerous problems, among them Bishop Thomas I's being kidnapped by Prince Boleslav Rogatka. World War II, mainly the Soviet bombing in spring 1945 was merciless to the Cathedral. "The liberators" destroyed completely the vaults of the nave and partly the vaults of the aisles. The reconstruction has lasted since 1945 until now. Two Baroque chapels adjoining the Cathedral are worth mentioning: St. Elisabeth's and Electors'. The first one was founded by Cardinal Fredericof Darmstadt, landgraveof Hesse who believed himself to be St. Elisabeth of Thuringia's descendent. The other one was founded by Archbishop Franz Ludwig von Pfalz-Neuburg, prince-elector and archbishop of Trier, Empress Eleonor's brother and was designed by an eminent Austrian Baroque architect, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach.