Torun a time capsule

The hometown of renowned astronomer Copernicus, Torun is a treasure trove of old red brick buildings and has numerous quaint legends,traditions and oddities
Torun a time capsule

HYDERABAD:During my visit to Poland, I was quite excited to explore Torun, the hometown of Copernicus. As a child, I held those medieval era scientists, mathematicians, and astronomers in great awe. Their portraits sketched in history textbooks had a fascinating appeal to my young mind. Not that I ever wanted to become a scientist or a mathematician, both the subjects were my least favourites. But I was always curious about them: hence my trip to Torun.

As I ambled my way through Torun, I felt being transported to a different epoch. It’s the medieval architecture that creates the atmosphere of Torun’s Old Town. A Gothic cathedral and other huge churches, a medieval town hall and tower, a ruined Teutonic knight’s castle, city walls, granaries, burghers’ houses all in red brick – Torun is a treasure trove of old red brick buildings. Almost a thousand red brick buildings give it a pleasant, rosy glow that reflects in the Vistula River. It has one of the most attractive, intriguing and well-preserved Old Towns in Europe. My guide Karolina Rucinska, with a great sense of pride for this celebrated place, filled me with details, as she took me around the town.

The layout of streets and squares has not changed since the middle ages when the town was a political and economic powerhouse. It owed its wealth to the Teutonic Knights who ravaged and conquered lands, posing a threat to the Polish Crown. The UNESCO Heritage site includes both Old and New Towns, along with the ruins of the Teutonic Knight’s castle. The most precious elements of the protected area are located in the Old Town centre, considered a true Polish marvel, with its churches, granaries and Town Hall. The place buzzes with life, in the backdrop  of several historical buildings.

The old fortifications survive in the form of fragments of defensive walls, gates and towers. The most famous of them is the ‘Leaning Tower’ with numerous legends around it. It is one of the square towers on the main fortifications, facing the river. Built of red brick, this tower leans at a crazy angle and is called the “Polish Pisa”. It stands without any sign or fanfare - and is inhabited on two floors.
Built in the 14th century, poor foundations led the tower to substantially lean at an angle. Tourists are often challenged to stand against the wall, with legs together and arms outstretched in front, for more than five seconds... This virtually impossible task I doggedly tried and managed the precious five seconds, almost ready to fall and saved myself at the sixth!!

Of late, Torun has gained much importance as the birthplace of the great astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus. There is a fine statue of him next to the old town hall, and his name pops up all over the town. The formulator of the first modern heliocentric theory of the solar system (i.e. the sun rather than the earth is at the centre) was born here in 1473. The cathedral has the font where he was baptised. The house where he was born is now a small museum. A tall man dressed as Copernicus, holding a globe, greeted us at his house. Going around the house and peering into the rooms, which display replicas of original astronomical wooden instruments, I imagined Copernicus as a quiet child immersed in his studies.

Torun’s appeal comes from its numerous quaint legends, traditions and oddities. In the Market Square, I saw a donkey sculpture which is a recreation of an old wooden medieval donkey that once stood in the same place as a means of punishing criminals. A sharp metal plate is fixed on the donkey’s back; weights were tied to the legs of the criminal, to increase the severity of the punishment. I felt sorry, more for the dumb donkey than for the punished.

Torun is famous for its gingerbread cookies, which come in all shapes – hearts being a favourite. Carolina took me to the best gingerbread shop ‘Pierniki’, where I bought some, to take back home. They are attractively packaged, with the boxes looking like some of the historic houses. Gingerbread in Torun goes back to the town’s founding (13th century). The ingredients that create the perfect taste include honey, ginger and cinnamon. In the ‘Gingerbread Museum’ one can bake one’s own souvenir in a reconstructed 16th century bakery.

On the main square near the old town hall is the charming statue of a boy (Janko) playing the violin, standing in a fountain whose rim contains a series of frogs, all cast in bronze. According to a local legend, Janko overcame a witch’s curse on Torun – an invasion of frogs by playing his fiddle and luring the frogs out into the woods. In the process, he earned the prize offered by the mayor: a sackful of gold and the mayor’s daughter.

Later, Karolina treated me to a lovely lunch at “Royal India”, an Indian restaurant in Torun. It felt good to discover how India is connected to Poland, through the gastronomic route!
(The author is a documentary filmmaker and travel writer; she blogs at  vijayaprataptravelandbeyond.com)

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