Poznan
Just a short lunch stop here but I loved it! The Town Square was all you imagined a medieval square to be with an impressive City Hall, fountains, and battling goats!
My video of the noon clock goat battle didn't want to load, so here's a youtube version!
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he Archcathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul in Poznan is one of the oldest churches in Poland and the oldest Polish cathedral, dating from the 10th century. An impressive example of Gothic architecture, Pope John Paul II stated that in Poznan, POLAND BEGAN.
Warsaw
The Ghetto Heroes Monument commemorates the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Recognizing the inevitable, Jewish captives of the ghetto rose against their oppressors, knowing their chances were impossibly low, in an effort to pick the time and place of their own deaths according to survivors. The Memorial is placed at the spot of the first armed class of the uprising. According to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the uprising was "one of the most significant occurrences in the history of the Jewish people". (wiki)
A little walk around the Warsaw Old Town! Please meet the Warsaw Mermaid!
The Warsaw Uprising lasted from August 1, 1944-October 2, 1944, destroying up to 90% of the buildings of Warsaw. The monument was visited by German president Roman Herzog in 1994, who paid tribute to the Poles and gave a speech about German shame in context of Nazi Germany's crimes during the Second World War in Poland. Herzog apologized to the Poles during his speech about war crimes (wiki).
Constructed in 1955 at the height of Soviet influence, the Palace of Culture and Science (originally it was also called the Stalin Palace but the name was dropped after the period of de-Stalinization) is the 6th tallest building in the EU. The building is home to a university, several theaters, shopping, and sports clubs. The National Stadium is in Warsaw as well as the Polish Vodka Museum in the Praga Koneser Center.
The Black Madonna
The icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa of the Jasna Gora Monastery has been intimately associated with Poland for the past 600 years. Its history prior to its arrival in Poland is shrouded in numerous legends which trace the icon's origin to St. Luke who painted it on a cedar table top from the house of theHoly Family. The same legend holds that the painting was discovered in Jerusalem in 326 by St. Helena, who brought it back to Constantinople and presented it to her son, Constantine the Great.
Krakow
Castle
Square
Salt Mines
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