Poland - Eastern Europe - page 465

river, and take in the town museum. Here you'll find a nice collection of stained glass
and other crafts through the ages and paintings of former prominent residents.
Rynek Staromiejski 1. May-Sept Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; Oct-Apr Tues-Sun 10am-4pm.
Nicholas Copernicus Museum (Muzeum Mikolaja Kopernika) If you're
in Toru ^ , you've got to pay a visit to the birthplace of the man who banished the earth
from the center of the universe. Copernicus's major work, “De revolutionibus orbium
coelestium” (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), was initially viewed as
blasphemy by the Catholic Church, and it wasn't until his death in 1543 that the work
was published. Copernicus's theories paved the way for a series of astronomical break-
throughs in the 16th and 17th centuries, including the work of Galileo, Tycho Brahe,
Johannes Kepler, and Sir Isaac Newton. Copernicus was a jack-of-all-trades, and when
he wasn't theorizing about the earth and the sun, he was working as a physician, a local
administrator, and even as a commander defending Olsztyn castle against an
onslaught of Teutonic Knights. You won't find an original copy of “De revolutionibus”
here, but several rooms filled with period artifacts and pictures.
Ul. M. Kopernika 15/17. & 056/267-48. Tues-Sun 10am-5pm.
SHOPPING
To r u ^ is famous throughout Poland for its gingerbread (piernik). You'll find it avail-
able at shops around town. One excellent place to try is Emporium (ul. Piekarny 28;
& 056/657-61-08 ). The young, English-speaking owner is more than happy to tell
you all about the history of gingerbread-making in Toru ^ , and can even give you the
recipe if you want to make it at home. He also stocks a range of other souvenirs unique
to Toru ^ (T-shirts, statues of Copernicus, and so on) and runs a bicycle rental.
AFTER DARK
After sunset it seems the whole town descends on the Old Town Square, near the
Copernicus statue, and starts the evening promenade through the square and then
down Szeroka, and then back. Most of the better clubs, bars, and cafes are along the
strip. They're all fun and pretty much the same.
POZNA%
120km (75 miles) S of Toru^
Pozna ^ , the main center of the province of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland), is a
bustling city of 600,000 people. To Poles, it's regarded as the legendary birthplace of
Poland, but to outsiders it's known more for its many annual trade fairs (making
Pozna ^ a cousin of sorts to Leipzig in Germany and Brno in the Czech Republic). The
city lies on one of Europe's main east-west train lines, stretching from Paris and Berlin
to Warsaw and Moscow, which makes getting here a snap. The city's principal attrac-
tion is its enormous and beautiful town square, the Stary Rynek, which when filled to
brimming on a warm summer evening looks and feels not unlike Kraków's Rynek
G l ówny or Prague's Old Town Square.
Pozna ^ owes its traditional prosperity to its position along main transportation
routes and astride the Warta River. During the Prussian occupation, when the town
was known as Posen, it became one of the region's leading industrial centers, a posi-
tion it retains until this day. The prosperity is evident in the sheer size of the square
and in the many handsome buildings that stretch out in all directions.