Photos

Torun - Town Hall.

Belongs to the most spectacular achievements of medieval urban architecture in Europe.

A s early as in XIII century, in the Old Town Market of dimensions 109x104 m, the following detached commercial and administrative buildings were erected: cloth halls, bread bakeries, a city scales, a court and a marketplace tower of 23 m in height. In late XIV century, the town received a privilege to build a Town Hall from the Grand Master of the Order of Teutonic Knights. In place of the abovementioned buildings, a new single-storey rectangular Town Hall of dimensions 43,7x52,4 m was erected. It boasted an internal courtyard and a tower (already existing), which was elevated to its contemporary height (40 m) and merged into the Town Hall architectonic structure by a builder named Andrzej. In the beginning of the XVII century municipal authorities decide that the Town Hall should be enlarged.
A n architect from Gdańsk, Antoni van Obberghen adds another storey to the Town Hall, enlarges window orifices and places renaissance towers in corners of the building. At that time the main tower received a pavilion roof and four corner turrets. The interior of the Town Hall was completely rebuilt and decorated with multiple splendid portals. In 1703, during a siege by Swedish army, the Town Hall was seriously devastated, mainly due to an outbreak of fire. Reconstruction lasted several years and the present shape of the Town Hall is mainly the effect of work carried out in the first half of the XVIII century.
A fter the Second World War a District Museum that functions to the present day was opened in the Town Hall.

Torun - is an ancient city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. Its population is 205,934 as of June 2009. Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The medieval old town of Toruń is the birthplace of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

In 1997 the medieval part of the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2007 the Old Town in Toruń was added to the list of Seven Wonders of Poland. National Geographic Polska rated the old town market and the Gothic town hall as one of the "30 Most Beautiful Places in the World." In 2010 Forbes magazine ranked Toruń as number one of the "Polish Cities Attractive for Business".[citation needed] In 2009 it was listed as one of the "Best Cities to Live in Poland", in a ranking published by Przekrój.[citation needed]

Previously it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–98) and the Pomeranian Voivodeship (1921–45). Since 1999, Toruń has been a seat of the self-government of the Kujawy-Pomerania Province and, as such, is one of its two capitals (together with Bydgoszcz). The cities and neighboring counties form the Bydgoszcz-Toruń bi-polar metropolitan area. In September 2004, Bydgoszcz Medical School joined Toruń's Nicolaus Copernicus University as its Collegium Medicum.