Sandomierz is an extraordinary town where historical facts meet a legend, and where relics of a thousand-year-old tradition meet traces of imagination.
The town (27 thousand inhabitants) lies on a tall escarpment of the Vistula river, not far from the confluence of the Vistula and the San rivers, at the point where the Świętokrzyskie Mountains meet the Sandomierz Basin. Founded in the late 10th century, it was granted the town charter in 1227. Sandomierz was an important location in the Polish history, it saw both days of glory (e.g. during the rule of Casimir the Great or Sigismund I) and horrors of war (Tartar invasions in the 13th century or the Swedish ‘Deluge’ of 1655). The World War II left almost no mark on the town (but for minor damage), but it saw no renovation or repair for years. Today, Sandomierz has things which may stir up envy in any other town: great architecture and unique and picturesque nature – like its loess ravines and terraced gardens.
In order to see a panoramic view of this medieval town, it is advisable to climb the Opatów Gate (Brama Opatowska) (33 m [108 ft]), the only town gate which survived to the present day from the defensive system built during the reign of Casimir the Great. The Old Town with soaring towers and spires of the town hall, cathedral and castle, roofs of the tenement houses, and bends of the Vistula river – all these make a view you will not easily forget. To the east, there are the admirable Pieprzowe Mountains, Poland’s second-oldest mountain range after the Sudetes (formed 500 million years ago!), with lots of scarps, ravines, steep mountain faces and clefts, which in summertime are covered with more wild rose species than elsewhere in Europe.
Sandomierz’s Old Town has no less than 127 listed monuments. The must-sees include the St. James’ Church (Poland’s oldest red-brick church, built in 1226), Długosz House (Dom Długosza – founded by a chronicler Jan Długosz in 1476), the Collegium Gostomianum, Poland’s oldest school, which in 2002 celebrated its 400th anniversary. Then it is worthwhile taking a walk under the town’s houses down an underground tourist route (470 m [1542 ft]).
An equally beautiful panorama of Sandomierz may be enjoyed during a cruise to Annopol (the San and Vistula confluence, Zawichost, Piotrowice, and the Vistula gorge between white rocks), with a real feast of romantic views – an inspiration not only for painters or poets. Let us add to this the region’s lush nature, wildfowl – and the Vistula itself. A river which, at this stretch of its course, has flown untamed by man for centuries.
www.sandomierz.pl /English, Deutsch/
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