today
In Torun is full of beautiful places!
Torun is one of the most beautiful cities in Poland, situated on the North of the country on the banks of the Vistula river. Gothic architectural monuments located in the Old town of Torun, in 1997 were listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO. During the second World war, the city is not substantially affected, so all the old buildings and the building retains its original appearance.
Archaeological excavations confirm that the first settlements on the territory of present city was founded in 1100 BC but the name Torun gave the settlement the knights of the Teutonic order, who arrived here in the early thirteenth century. and who built a castle here. Toruń city rights received in 1233 over the centuries, the city remained an important center of trading routes and several times changed its owners: toruń was a part of not only Poland, but also Prussia and Sweden.
Torun – the city is famous for gingerbread, a genuine Gothic structures and Nicolaus Copernicus. Here, in 1473 G. was born the famous astronomer and mathematician, the author of the geocentric system of the world, which marked the beginning of the 1st scientific revolution. The Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun is one of the most prestigious Universities in Poland. Continue reading
Gothic furniture
Suppose you want to arrange a room or office in this Gothic style. Well, the desire is quite commendable: the Gothic style is one of the most recognizable and distinctive art styles, it has some solemnity, festivity, and, however, the monumentality, in which everyone will see what he likes. Someone pleasing vaulted ceiling, some gorgeous stained glass, somebody paid tribute to the Gothic chest or chair, and someone even dare to enter in daily use carved Cabinet bookcase.
The European Gothic style, as an aesthetic tradition in architecture and design originated as an alternative to the Romanesque style: heavy, solid, pragmatic. Built and decorated in the Gothic style monasteries, churches, the town hall have a more elegant silhouette, filled with sculptures, arches, polarome-flying buttresses, ornate carvings, stained glass Windows, etc.
The building, built in the Gothic style, as if towards the sky (this was possible due to the newly invented system of frame construction), there are high Windows, the spires which crown the roof, and inside the room are made out by painting on wood or frescoes, tapestries, fine Flemish carpets. Respectively, the Gothic furniture is simple, elegant, but also subject to the same artistic canons: vaulted ceiling, patterned ornaments, carving in the shape of leaves, shields, and roses. Continue reading
Lace Gothic Prague Castle
The place is known to everyone, and it is called Prague Castle. Today our tour guide will be already known by our previous walking man – Dr. Frantisek Kadlec, Director of the tourism Department of the Administration of Prague Castle. So, in order to understand when and why the Gothic style appeared in the Czech Republic in General and Prague in particular, let us look a little into history.
Then Charles IV decided to invite to Prague architect and the first architect who comes to Prague for the construction of the Prague Castle became a French architect Mathieu of Arras. In 1344 he laid the first stone of the future Gothic Cathedral. The Gothic style was very different from its predecessor is quite simple Romanesque style. Now we are in the so-called Third courtyard of Prague Castle, and the very structure of St. Vitus Cathedral speaks eloquently about what Gothic architecture is very luxurious and magnificent.
Mathieu of Arras was destined to work on the construction of the Cathedral for eight years. He died in 1352. Then Charles IV was forced to seek a new architect, and he found him in the person of a young native Austrian city of Gmunden Peter Parler, who at the time of arrival to Prague was only 23 years old. Continue reading
