Rynek - Town Square

Rynek - Old Town Square is the heart of the city.

It was laid out, together with the adjoining Plac Solny (Salt Square) and the plot of land put aside for the construction of St. Elizabeth's Church, around the middle of the 13th century. With an area of 3.7 hectares it is one of the largest of its kind in Poland.

The most valuable buildings are situated along its western side; among them are:

• the manneristic "Pod Gryfami" (Griffins' House) from the end of the 16th century,

• "Pod Złotym Słońcem" (Under the Golden Sun) built in 1730,

• Siedmiu Elektorów (Seven Electors) with a long history, rebuilt in the 17th century.

The remaining sides of the Old Town Square are made up of 19th and 20th - century stores and old tenement houses reconstructed after 1945.

The most valuable monument in the Old Town Square is Ratusz (City Hall). In front of its south-east corner stands a copy of a 1492 stone flogging pillar, which until the end of the 18th century was used to administer corporal punishments.