Three days in Toruń: red brick all the way down, and none of it rebuilt

Two nights on the Vistula: a Gothic town hall that has stood since 1274, the house Copernicus was born in, gingerbread you bake yourself, and the castle the townspeople pulled down.

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Length
3 days, 2 nights
Where you stay
Toruń
Places
8 across 3 days
OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap

The reason to come here is simple, and it takes a moment to sink in once you are standing in the square. This is the real thing. Warsaw was rebuilt from paintings, Gdańsk from photographs, Wrocław from what was left after a siege; Toruń was not touched. The Gothic burghers' houses, the granaries, the town hall, the walls along the river and the two great brick churches have been standing where they are since the fourteenth century, and the only thing that has happened to them is time.

It was a Hanseatic town and a rich one, founded by the Teutonic Knights in 1233 as a base for conquering the pagan Prussians and grown fat afterwards on the grain floated down the Vistula. Its most famous son is Nicolaus Copernicus, born here in 1473 in a house on a street that still exists. Its most famous product is gingerbread, made here since the Middle Ages and still, in the good bakeries, made to the old recipe.

Two nights is enough and two nights is right. The old town is about six hundred metres across, everything is walkable, and the pleasure of the place is in walking it repeatedly rather than in ticking things off.

Highlights

  • A brick Gothic town centre that nobody had to put back together
  • The house where Copernicus was born, on the street where he grew up
  • A tower that has been 140 centimetres out of true since the century it went up
  • Baking your own gingerbread in a nineteenth century factory, under oath
  • The whole waterfront from across the river, which is the photograph everyone comes for

Where to stay

Toruń, two nights

The old town is a rough rectangle on the north bank of the Vistula, running about six hundred metres each way, with the town hall standing free in the middle of the market square. South of that, a line of medieval walls and gates separates the streets from the river, and beyond them is a promenade and the bridge.

It divides into an Old Town and a New Town, which were separate walled settlements with separate town halls and separate markets, and the seam between them is still visible on the map. The ruined castle sits in the gap between them, placed there by the knights so that neither town could combine against them.

Sleep inside the walls. There are hotels in converted granaries and burgher houses, and nothing in the old town is more than a ten minute walk from anything else. The leafy nineteenth century district west of the centre, full of timber-framed villas and backing onto a park, is the alternative and is a pleasant twenty minute walk in along the river.

Day by day

Day 1 in Toruń

The town hall, the cathedral and the leaning tower

Start with the building in the middle of the square. It went up in stages from 1274, is one of the largest brick town halls in central Europe, and is exactly what a Hanseatic corporation built when it wanted to be taken seriously: a square block around a courtyard, with a tower on one corner. The museum inside is thorough and mostly labelled in Polish, so the reasons to go up are the Gothic art, the medieval stained glass and the tower, which gives you the whole town at once.

Then the cathedral, five minutes south towards the river. Copernicus was christened in it. The tower carries a bell cast in 1500 that is one of the biggest medieval bells anywhere and is rung only a handful of times a year, and on the outside of the same tower is a clock with one hand, shaped like a pointing finger.

Walk out through the gate to the river wall and turn right along it. Set into the wall is a squat brick tower leaning noticeably downhill; the clay under it moved not long after it was built and it has been out of true ever since. Everyone tries to stand with their heels and back against it and their arms out, and everyone fails.

  1. 15:00

    Old Town Hall

    Culture

    Begun in 1274 and one of the finest Gothic town halls in Europe, standing alone in the middle of the square. Inside: fourteenth century stained glass, a coin collection and the hall of Polish kings. Labelling is mostly Polish. Climb the tower.

  2. 16:45

    Cathedral of SS. Johns

    Visit

    Fourteenth and fifteenth century, and the church Copernicus was baptised in. The Tuba Dei bell of 1500 hangs in the tower, there is a fresco from 1380 inside, and the single-handed clock on the south face is a small thing worth looking up for.

  3. 18:00

    Krzywa Wieża

    Historic

    A thirteenth century tower in the town wall that started leaning about 140 cm almost as soon as it was finished, thanks to the clay underneath it. Free, outdoors, two minutes, and the wall walk either side of it is the nicest stretch in town.

  4. 19:30

    Dinner in a cellar

    Eat

    Half the restaurants in the old town are in vaulted medieval basements. Pierogi, roast meat and a glass of honey liqueur costs a fraction of Kraków prices.

With more time: Two houses on the square are museums in their own right: one with a baroque front and a painted Renaissance ceiling at the back, reached by a wooden spiral staircase with a carved Minerva on it, and the nineteenth century hall on the eastern side, which is now the cultural centre. Both take half an hour.

Day 2 in Toruń

Copernicus, gingerbread, and the castle the town pulled down

The Copernicus house is two streets from the square, in a Gothic merchant's tenement his family owned and where he was almost certainly born in 1473. It is as much a museum of how a fifteenth century trading household lived as of the man himself, with the storage floors, the fireplaces and the timber structure all visible, and the labelling is in Polish, English and German.

Then gingerbread, which sounds like a diversion and is not. The old factory north of the square runs sessions where you take an oath, knead the dough, press it into carved wooden moulds and bake it, guided by a master baker and a witch, and it takes about an hour. It is aimed at children and adults enjoy it more.

In the afternoon, walk east to the castle, or what is left of it. The Teutonic Knights built one of their first Polish strongholds here in the thirteenth century, and in 1454 the townspeople tore it down, an act that started thirteen years of war between Poland and the Order. What survives above ground is a ring of low walls, a cellar or two, and the tower that served as the latrine, which is the best preserved part of the whole complex and says something about how thoroughly the rest went.

  1. 10:00

    Nicolaus Copernicus' House

    Culture

    A fifteenth century merchant house owned by the Copernicus family and the probable birthplace, now a museum in three parts: the house, the astronomy and the man. Explanations in Polish, English and German. Allow an hour and a half.

  2. 12:00

    Museum of Toruń Gingerbread

    Culture

    In a nineteenth century gingerbread factory that belonged to the Weese family, with 1200 square metres of exhibition on the history of the trade. Poland's largest museum on the subject and the only one that lets you bake.

  3. 13:45

    Lunch on Szeroka

    Eat

    The wide street between the two market squares is the main run of cafes and lunch places, and it is halfway between the morning and the afternoon.

  4. 15:00

    Ruins of Teutonic Knights Castle

    Visit

    An open ruin you walk around, deliberately demolished by the citizens in 1454 and then used as a rubbish dump for five centuries until it was dug out in the 1950s. Cheap, outdoors, and the surviving latrine tower is genuinely impressive.

With more time: The Franciscan church west of the square has no steeple, a very tall nave, fourteenth century wall paintings and the tomb of a Swedish princess, and hardly anybody goes in. On the ring road just outside the walls there is an open air museum of Polish rural building with a windmill in it, which fills an hour and is mostly visited by school groups.

Day 3 in Toruń

The granaries, and the view from the other bank

Spend the first part of the morning on the streets between the square and the river, which are lined with granaries. Between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries this was one of the great grain ports of Europe, and the buildings that held the harvest are still here: tall, narrow, almost windowless brick blocks with hoist beams under the gables, now flats and hotels. The oldest and best are on the corner by the leaning tower.

Then cross the river. There is a footway on the road bridge and a viewpoint on the island beyond it, and from there you get the thing this town is actually famous for: the entire medieval waterfront in one line, walls, gates, granaries, two church towers and the town hall behind them, with nothing modern in the frame.

It is also on the way to the station, which sits on this side of the water, so the last morning arranges itself. Allow twenty minutes for the walk over and back, or take the bus from the square if the wind is up, which on the Vistula in spring it usually is.

  1. 09:30

    Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Granaries

    Visit

    Tall brick warehouses from the grain trade, standing all through the lower town. The finest is on the corner of Piekary and Rabiańska near the leaning tower; another has been turned into a hotel. Free, outdoors, and best in low morning light.

  2. 10:45

    Vantage point on the left bank of Vistula River

    Visit

    The classic view of the Gothic waterfront, from the island on the far bank. Walk over the road bridge or take a bus from the square. Best in the morning with the sun behind you, and it is on the way to the main station.

  3. 12:30

    Gingerbread for the train

    Eat

    Buy a box on the way back through the square. The plum-filled ones in dark chocolate travel best and are the local order.

With more time: With a later train there are two things within reach. The ruins of a fifteenth century royal castle stand on this side of the river, twenty minutes' walk downstream, built by a Polish king specifically to annoy the Teutonic Order on the opposite bank. And 10 km north there is a radio observatory with a 32 metre dish, which runs tours by arrangement and is unlike anything else in the region.

Before you go

Getting in and getting around

Trains run from Warsaw in under three hours, from Gdańsk in about two and a half, from Poznań in around two and from Bydgoszcz in under an hour. The nearest airports are Bydgoszcz at 60 km and Gdańsk at about 180.

One thing to know on arrival: Toruń Główny, the main station, is on the far side of the Vistula, and walking in takes about thirty-five minutes. Buses 22 and 27 run into the old town in a few minutes, or a taxi costs very little. There is a second, smaller station much closer to the centre, and some services stop at it.

Once you are in, walk. The old town is closed to public transport and small enough that you will cross it a dozen times a day without noticing. Buses matter only for the open air museum on the ring and for the observatory out of town.

Gingerbread

Toruń has been baking pierniki since the Middle Ages, on the strength of being a port where Baltic honey met spices coming up the trade routes. The dough is traditionally left to mature for weeks or months before it is baked, which is why the real thing has a texture nothing like a supermarket biscuit.

There are two things to do about it. One is the museum in the old Weese family factory, where you knead, mould and bake your own under supervision. The other is to buy properly: the town's long-established bakery sells hand-decorated hearts, honey-glazed katarzynki in their traditional six-lobed shape, and boxes that survive being carried home. Look for the ones filled with plum jam and coated in dark chocolate.

Eating and drinking

This is not a food destination in the way Kraków or Warsaw are, and it is cheaper for it. Pierogi, żurek, potato pancakes and roast meats are the standard, done well in a dozen cellars around the square, most of them in vaulted rooms that were medieval storage.

The one local drink worth trying is a small glass of honey liqueur, which is sold everywhere here and goes with the gingerbread better than it has any right to. There is also a good craft beer scene for a city this size, run out of a handful of bars in the streets north of the square.

Because it is a university town, there are also more late-opening cafes than a town of 195,000 would otherwise support, and prices are student prices.

When to come

May to September, when the riverbank is open and the square has tables on it. The town holds a light festival in the summer that puts projections on the brick, which is worth timing a visit around.

Toruń in winter is cold, quiet and photogenic, and the gingerbread trade is at its busiest before Christmas. Whenever you come, the old town is at its best early in the morning, before the day trips from Gdańsk and Warsaw arrive, and again after five when they leave.

What stays with people here is not any one building. It is the realisation, somewhere on the second evening, that the wall you are leaning on is the wall that was there, and that nobody has had to explain to you which parts are original.

Two nights, one river crossing and a box of gingerbread is the whole of it. The rest of Poland's old towns are magnificent achievements of reconstruction. This one just never fell down.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

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Common questions

How many days do you need in Toruń?
Two nights. The old town is six hundred metres across and one full day covers the main sights, but a second gives you the museums without rushing and an evening in the square after the day trippers have gone, which is when the place is at its best.
Is Toruń a day trip or a stay?
It is done as a day trip from Warsaw or Gdańsk and it works, just about. Staying is better and not much more expensive: the town empties out around five, the restaurants are cheap, and the morning light on the brick is the reason photographers come.
Why is Toruń's old town intact when the rest of Poland's are not?
Luck of geography. The fighting in 1945 went round it rather than through it, so unlike Warsaw, Gdańsk or Wrocław there was nothing to rebuild. UNESCO listed the medieval centre in 1997 for exactly that reason.
What is the gingerbread actually like?
Dense, dark, spiced and much less sweet than the word suggests. The traditional dough is matured for weeks before baking. Buy from a bakery rather than a souvenir stand, and try the plum-filled ones dipped in dark chocolate.
Is it easy to combine with other cities?
Yes. It sits between Warsaw, Gdańsk and Poznań, all of them two to three hours away by train, so it fits neatly into a longer route as a two night stop rather than a detour.
Can I change the order of these days?
Yes. Copy it into a trip of your own and rearrange. The only thing worth keeping in place is the view from the far bank on the last morning, because the station is on that side of the river.

Places and coordinates are drawn from Wikivoyage, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: Toruń.