Torun – 2

Excerpt from the new book about visiting Poland and The Baltics.

Torun came under the influence of the Teutonic knights in 1233. They built the walls and the castle. The port flourished to the extent that Torun joined the Hanseatic League in the 1280s. The Thirteen Years War was concluded by the Treaty of Torun which returned large parts of the country to Poland in 1466. 300 years of prosperity ended with the wars with Sweden and Torun became part of Prussia in 1793 and then part of Germany until 1920 when at last Torun became part of Poland again. 

I liked the statues in Torun. There’s one of a bronze donkey on the Rynek, which is very popular with the people passing through the area and the statue is well polished as a result of constant contact with visitor’s clothes. The donkey affords good views of the statue of Copernicus and the Town Hall. What people perhaps don’t appreciate is the sinister history of the donkey, which replaced a wooden one that people were tied to in the Middle Ages to be flogged as punishment for misdemeanours.