Top tours in Wroclaw, Poland

Learn more about Wroclaw

Wrocław is a beautiful city with hundreds of years of multicultural history. However, its beginnings were quite humble. Everything started for a very simple reason – because of the river Oder. Rivers were a big deal back in the day! They made the trade flow, because why carry all the valuables on your own, while you could make river currents do it for you? They also were capable of single-handily stopping armies and military advances. This is why Wrocław – or Vratislaw, Breslau, and a few other names – was so valuable and powerful! The river Oder made it prosperous and rich, while its strategic location made it vital for anyone wanting to have a military presence in Silesia. And trust us – everybody wanted a piece of that.

Because of that, Wrocław changed hands a lot. Czech, Polish, German, and even… French – that’s right, even Napoleon wanted Wrocław! They all controlled the city at one point or another in history. One of the most contested cities in the history of the region, each change of ownership only made Wrocław stronger. This is where the amazing, unique blend of cultures comes from! While the rulers changed and brought new laws, customs, and citizens with them, the people remained. They did not discard the way of the past, and instead of replacing it, they kept adding to it! This is why you can find so many influences from outside Poland in Wroclaw’s culture, architecture, and cuisine. 

This multi-cultural exposition also worked well for Wroclaws’ intelligence and academia. It can boast many Nobel Prize laureates from different fields of work. The most recent of them is Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the 2018 literature Nobel prize. Other Nobel-worthy Wrocław-related intellectuals include Theodor Mommsen, Paul Ehrlich, Eduard Buchner, Phillip Lénárd, Gerhart Hauptmann, Fritz Haber, Max Born, Friedrich Bergius, Otto Stern, and Reinhard Selten.