Built up over the last 1000 years on islets in the Oder River, Ostrow Tumski is the most instantly recognizable part of Wroclaw and the location of the very recognizable Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. The cathedral’s history reads like a condensed version of Wroclaw’s bad habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time during many wars and conquests that damaged the city and the cathedral to varying degrees. In testament to the chutzpah and determination of the city it has always been rebuilt, restored, and improved.

Today the historic and aesthetic buildings that occupy the historic islands enjoy the status and protection due to such venerable structures. Ostrow Tumski is exemplary of the kind of places one may find around the world that, while they are of obvious and glorious historical value or anthropoligical significance don’t garner the attention of their better known counterparts. These are the true gems of travel where one can indulge in a single church or museum uninterrupted for an entire day. Should you find yourself in Ostrow Tumski or any of the other countless treasures like it around the world, linger a little longer, dig a little deeper, read a little more, and whether or not you ever meet again on the terestrial plain, you will never leave eachother.