Imagine Poland, Wroclaw, The Panorama Raclawicka

What an amazing attraction depicting an epic part of Polish history and only a few minutes walk from the centre of Wroclaw. Its location in a small park area next to the River Odra was easy to find.

Wroclaw, The Panorama Raclawicka

The only example of its sort ‘The Panorama of the Battle of Raclawicka’ – the gigantic painting – 114m long and 15m high. It is a unique painting created in such a way that the picture mixes up with the real objects. The composition of the Panorama has such a valour that the spectators cannot distinguish at first glance where the painting ends and the decoration starts. 

Wroclaw, The Panorama Raclawicka

This was the aim of its creators – the famous polish painters Jan Styka and Wojciech Kossak who using special artistic techniques alongside the particular lighting, managed to take the viewers into a different world – the battlefield of Raclawicka – the legendary General Tadeusz Kosciuszko’s victory over Russians forces in 1794. The painting was created in the hundreth anniversary of the event - in 1894 to warm the hearts of Poles being still under the Partition. Nowadays still it can be quite rightly described as a polish national pilgrimage centre. It was originally presented in Lwow but after the II World War and the loss of this polish city to the USSR, it was Wroclaw who inherited the painting and struggled with the communists in order to restore it to its former glory and make it public yet again.

Wroclaw, The Panorama Raclawicka

At present, as originally The Panorama of Raclawicka is being displayed in a specially designed rotunda. There are always hordes of visitors there and school groups just like it was many years ago in Lwow. The difference is now multilingual presentation headsets are available at no extra charge for foreign tourists. There are presentations every thirty minutes  or so. On our visit the cost was 20zl per adult.

Its another must visit place on your Wroclaw sightseeing map and can be found in the Park Slowackiego by Purkyniego Street.

For more information on the Panorama Raclawicka please visit www.panoramaraclawicka.pl

For more information on Wroclaw visit www.polandtrips.co.uk/historic-wroclaw