Torun (Toruń) is a city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. Torun is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The medieval old town of is the birthplace of the famous Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. In 1997 the medieval part of the city became a World Heritage Site.

The Old Town of Torun became part of the list of Seven Wonders of Poland in 2007. It was the capital of the Torun Voivodeship and the Pomeranian Voivodeship.

Since 1999, Torun has been a seat of the self-government of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. And as such, it’s one of its two capitals (together with Bydgoszcz). The cities and neighboring counties form the Bydgoszcz-Torun twin city metropolitan area.

Plan your trip to Torun with this complete Torun Travel Guide!

Archaeologists dated the first settlement near Torun to 1,100 BC. During early medieval times, there was an old Slavonic settlement here, at a ford in the Vistula River.

In 1231 the Teutonic Knights crossed the river Vistula at the height of Nessau and established a fortress. On 28 December 1233, the Teutonic Knights Hermann von Salza and Hermann Balk signed the foundation charters for Thorn and Kulm (Chełmno).

The original document disappeared in 1244. The rights are generally known as “Kulm law”. In 1236, due to frequent flooding, it relocated to the present site of the Old Town. Franciscan monks settled in the city in 1263, followed in 1239 by Dominicans.

In 1264 New Town emerged to house Torun’s growing population of craftsmen and artisans. The city (or as it was then both cities) joined the mercantile Hanseatic League in 1280 and thus became an important medieval trade center.

First Peace of Thorn

The First Peace of Thorn ending the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War was signed in the city in 1411. In 1440, the gentry of Thorn formed the Prussian Confederation, and in 1454 rose with the Confederation against the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in the Thirteen Years’ War. After almost 200 years, the New and Old Towns amalgamated in 1454.

The Poles destroyed the Teutonic castle. The Thirteen Years’ War ended in 1466 with the Second Peace of Thorn. Then the Teutonic Order ceded their control over western provinces, becoming part of Royal Prussia. Thorn remained a free city, now under the patronage of the Polish king.

In 1557, during the Protestant Reformation, the city adopted Protestantism. In 1595 Jesuits arrived to promote the Counter-Reformation, taking control of St. John’s Church. The Protestant city officials tried to limit the influx of Catholics into the city, as Catholics already controlled most of the churches, leaving only St. Mary’s to Protestant citizens.

During the Great Northern War, the preparation of Augustus the Strong’s restoration as King of Poland took place by the Treaty of Thorn by Russian Tsar Peter the Great.

In the 2nd half of the 17th century, tensions between Catholics and Protestants grew. In the early 18th century about 50 percent of the populace, especially the gentry and middle class, were German-speaking Protestants, while the other 50 percent were Polish-speaking Roman Catholics. Protestant influence was then pushed back after the Tumult of Thorn in 1724.

Only three out of the twelve medieval gates in Torun (eight in the Old City, four in the New City) have survived. Others disappeared in the second half of the 19th century, together with almost all the city walls.

The surviving ones are along the Vistula River. Two of the gates were broad and massive, which was a characteristic feature of the gates in Flanders.

These included the non-preserved Paulinian Gate (Brama Paulińska) with a superstructure in the form of an octagon added in the first half of the 14th century and the surviving Monastic Gate (Brama Klasztorna) of the first half of the 14th century. Demolishing other gates, including Chełmno Gate (Brama Chełmińska), was a great loss for Torun.

The Torun castle was never conquered by invaders. But its closest neighbours, the townsfolk of the Old Town of Torun destroyed it. They besieged the fortress at the beginning of February 1545. The attack gave a signal for a nationwide uprising led by the Prussian Confederation, an organization established by towns, gentry and knights to protect their rights against lawlessness and power abuse by the monastic state of the Teutonic Order.

The citizens of Torun managed to take the castle and immediately began its systematic demolition. The castle inner court turned into a municipal rubbish tip which functioned for centuries. It was only in the 1960’s that the ruins of the castle were finally unearthed.

Today the layout of the castle is discernible thanks to the preserved outer walls. At the entrance to the inner courtyard and in its central part one can still see the remains of the detonated defence tower. The section that still stands along the bank of the Vistula river houses the remnants of the knights’ living quarters. The best preserved part of the castle is the toilet tower called Gdanisko, which functioned as a gunpowder storage depot from 16th to 18th century.

Close to the tower stands a watermill once used by the Teutonic knights’ and harnessing the stream of Struga Toruńska. There’s a rumour saying that the walls of the castle were a hiding place for a flying dragon, allegedly spotted in Torun in the summer of 1746. It seems that even then the ruins seemed to be full of mysteries.

The Living Museum of Gingerbread in Torun is the first so interactive museum in Europe. It has existed since 2006 and it is in the middle of the city center (199 steps from The Nicolas Copernicus Monument). Crossing the gates of the Museum will guarantee you two-time travels. The first floor takes visitors to the Medieval times.

Here you can learn about every ritual connected with baking gingerbread. It all takes place under the watchful eyes of the Gingerbread Master and the charming Gingerbread Witch. The visitors prepare dough by themselves and then bake the specialties of Torun in traditional wooden molds.

The second floor is a manufacturing room from the 19th and early 20th century, managed by the Rabiański siblings. Here visitors will see the original German machines (used to bake the gingerbread), a vintage baking oven, and a wax gingerbread mold collection. What is more, everyone can decorate their gingerbread with icing and take part in a gingerbread decorating workshop led by the rzez Painter.

An interactive museum

The Living Museum of Gingerbread is not a traditional museum where you watch exhibits in glass display cases. It’s a special place where guests can take part in an interactive show led by an experienced storyteller. This makes learning about history a real adventure. Apart from providing an interactive show the museum also collects and exposes artifacts and other valuable items about the history of gingerbread. The collection has over 100 items and is continuously enriched. Visitors can touch many of these items and you can have a go on real and old bakery equipment and see how it all works. The museum also collects writings about the bakery industry.

There are two showrooms. The bakery from the 15th century is the first one. Worth seeing is a copy of “die Teigbreche” (or a “dough-breaking machine”) – a muscle-powered equipment that kneads gingerbread dough. Also, everyone can try working on 150 years old quern-stones. Many original molds from the turn of the 18th century grace the walls of this room.

The other show room’s setup is for an early 20th-century bakery. Heart and core of this exhibition room is an original stove from 1905, taken from Międzyrzecz and rebuilt here. The L.G. Eberhardt factory blending machine from 1905 and Otto Necke factory splitting machine complement the production line. All this machinery is in working condition.

Address

9 Rabiańska Street, Torun, Poland

The Vistula riverside vista of Torun is among of Poland’s most beautiful. In a 2007 poll by a daily newsletter titled “Seven wonders of Poland” it was second only to the Wieliczka salt mine. Old Town buildings with a Teutonic castle that descend on the embankments have long been Torun’s cultural and social heart.

Once a popular place to welcome the spring sunshine, embankment stairs are now one of the town’s most attractive sites. You can take a stroll here, relax in an outdoor bar and watch the river.

That’s why the Torun municipality is investing in the riverside. Tthe city completed the overhaul of the harbor owned by the Academic Sports Association of the Nicolaus Copernicus University. They converted it into a small marina for the residents and tourists alike. Back in 2014 the city built a leisure area there for families with kids, a mini beach filled with sand. You can recline in a deck chair here and watch the water or the kids playing in a new playground.

The Bydgoskie District is unique for its charming place along the Vistula escarpment. It has a vast and picturesque English-style Municipal Park of 1817, and the rich greenery and architecture.

The present-day buildings are from the 19th and early 20th centuries in the Classicist, Eclectic, Art Nouveau, and Neo-Gothic styles. So there are a lot of houses with half-timbered walls, corner turrets, and decorated gables with many details and ornaments.

Famous Neighbours

In the exclusive suburb lived civil servants, officers, freelancers and other celebrated people. In the interwar period Kazimiera Żuławska’s boarding house ‘Zofijówka’ hosted such eminent artists as Stanisław Przybyszewski, Tymon Niesiołowski, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Juliusz Osterwa and others. Here, the first Polish Naval Academy was established.