Torun
8/17/2025
It was a bit of a haul to get to Torun (over 2 hours by train), but everyone said it was worth it. And, of course, we have time! 😊
Torun is a really pretty city known for three things:
1) It is legit old! It is one of the few cities in Poland that wasn’t destroyed in WWII, so there are buildings from the 14th century. Part of the city walls still exist including a ‘leaning’ tower.
2) It is the birth place of Nicolaus Copernicus - February 19, 1493. He was the astronomer who put forth the theory that the Sun is the center of the Universe, and that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Below are photos of a monument to him and the home he was born in.
3) Gingerbread! The town is famous for its gingerbread because of its long history of production, dating back to the 13th century, its advantageous location on trade routes, and its unique (top secret) recipes. The city's access to high-quality ingredients like flour and honey, as well as spices from distant lands, allowed bakers to develop a distinct gingerbread that became renowned throughout Poland and beyond. There are tons of shops selling gingerbread (we bought plenty – we are getting so fat!). Gingerbread flavored beer is widely available (and quite yummy!). And there is a gingerbread museum which we went to but it was kinda lame.
Also, there are a couple of well known statues in the town square. One is a donkey which looks pretty cute and harmless, but was actually used as punishment in medieval times. If someone misbehaved, they had to sit in the town square on the donkey which was equipped with a saddle of spikes!
The second statue is the “frog fountain”. Folklore says that there was a plague of frogs and a fiddle player, much like the pied piper played his fiddle and led the frogs out of town.
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