POLAND: Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland

The wooden churches of Little Poland bear important testimony to medieval church building traditions, as these related to the liturgical and cult functions of the Roman Catholic Church in a relatively closed region in central Europe.
The churches are the most representative examples of surviving Gothic churches built in horizontal log technique, particularly impressive in their artistic and technical execution, and sponsored by noble families and rulers as symbols of social and political prestige.

   The Church of St Philip and St James the Apostles (Sekowa) is an auxiliary church, built around 1520, on the site of an earlier church. The building has a square plan with no aisles; the chancel has a three-sided east end and the building is covered with a high roof.

 
      The Church of the Archangel Michael (Debno) is first mentioned in 1335. The present building, the second on the site, dates from the late 15th century. This church has a unique example of medieval decorations. The ceiling and the interior walls are painted using stencils from the 15th and 16th centuries. The decoration contains more than 77 motifs: architectural recalling Gothic forms, animal, human and religious.

    
  The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael (Haczow) has original Gothic polychrome decoration from the late 15th century, although the building has been dated to the previous century. At the beginning of the 17th century the church was enclosed by an earthen defensive rampart. The Church of St Peter and St Paul was built in 1789 from a donation. The furniture was designed in Baroque style but was substantially altered in 1836. In 1846 the Stations of the Cross were installed in the external arcade. There were more renovations later, but the form and decorations have been kept. 

  

    The Church of St Leonard (Lipnica Murowana) was built at the end of the 15th century. From this date have survived parts of the polychrome decoration stencilled on the ceiling of the nave. The church was situated outside the defensive wall of the township and had the function of a cemetery church, a function that it still fulfils. It has been renovated many times, but this has not significantly affected its form or spatial arrangement.

  

    

POLAND: Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)

    Auschwitz Concentration Camp is the symbol of humanity's cruelty to its fellows in the 20th century. This monument to the martyrdom and resistance of millions of men, women and children is not a historical museum in the usual sense of the word: it bears irrefutable witness to one of the greatest crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.

    Preserved in the condition in which they existed in 1947 at the time of the founding of the museum, the walls, barbed wire, platforms, barracks, gallows, gas chambers and cremation ovens all recreate the conditions under which the Nazi genocide took place in the former concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest in the Third Reich.

   This is the largest cemetery in the world: 4 million people of many nationalities from 24 different countries, among them many Jews, were systematically starved, tortured and murdered. Archives, photographs and exhibits illustrate the methods used by the SS, as well as their efficiency.

It was established by the Nazis in 1940, in the suburbs of the town of Oświęcim which, like other parts of Poland, was occupied by the Germans during the Second World War. The name of the town was changed to Auschwitz, which became the name of the camp as well. Over the following years, the camp was expanded and eventually consisted of three main parts: the first and oldest was the so-called 'main camp', later also known as Auschwitz I (the number of prisoners fluctuated around 15,000, sometimes rising above 20,000), which was established on the grounds and in the buildings of pre-war Polish barracks.

    The second part was the Birkenau camp (which held over 90,000 prisoners in 1944 - Jews, Poles, Roma (Gypsies), and others), also known as Auschwitz II; this was the largest part of the Auschwitz complex, with crude barracks, most of them wooden. The Nazis began building it in 1941 on the site of the village of Brzezinka, 3 km from Oświęcim. The Polish civilian population was evicted and their houses confiscated and demolished. The greater part of the apparatus of mass extermination was built in Birkenau and the majority of the victims were murdered here.
    Those who remained behind in the camp were liberated by Red Army soldiers on 27 January 1945. The 2 July 1947 Act of the Polish Parliament established the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the grounds of the two extant parts of the camp, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

POLAND: Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork

This 13th-century fortified monastery belonging to the Teutonic Order was substantially enlarged and embellished after 1309, when the seat of the Grand Master moved here from Venice. A particularly fine example of a medieval brick castle, it later fell into decay, but was meticulously restored in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of the conservation techniques now accepted as standard were evolved here. Following severe damage in the Second World War it was once again restored, using the detailed documentation prepared by earlier conservators.


Malbork Castle is the most complete and elaborate example of the Gothic brick castle complex in the characteristic and unique style of the Teutonic Order, which evolved independently from the contemporary castles of western Europe and the Near East. The spectacular fortress represents the phenomenon of the monastic state in Prussia, founded in the 13th century and developed in the 14th century by the German communities of military monks who carried out crusades against the pagan Prussians on the south Baltic coast. The fortified monastery on the River Nogat represents the drama of Christianity in the late Middle Ages, stretched between extremes of sanctity and violence.
Over a span of two hundred years, since the 18th Century, the Malbork Castle has remained one of the major objects of European fascination with medieval history and its material remains. It also became a sign of the tendency to treat history and its monuments as instruments in the service of political ideologies.
   Malbork Castle is an architectural work of unique character. Many of the methods used by its builders in handling technical and artistic problems greatly influenced not only subsequent castles of the Teutonic Order but also other Gothic buildings in a wide region of north-eastern Europe. The castle also provides perfect evidence of the evolution of modern philosophy and practice in the field of restoration and conservation. It is a historic monument to conservation itself, both in its social aspect and as a scientific and artistic discipline.
Malbork Castle, a symbol of power and cultural tradition, is the most important monument to the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, a unique phenomenon in the history of western civilization. The Castle is at the same time the major material manifestation of the Crusades in eastern Europe, the forced baptism of the Baltic peoples, and the colonization of their tribal territories, which played a vital role in the history of Europe.
 Malbork Castle is an outstanding example of the castles of the Teutonic Order, which evolved in the frontiers of medieval western Europe. It is a unique, perfectly planned architectural creation, with no equivalent in Gothic architecture. It was built with the use of the rich repertoire of medieval constructional methods; these were applied on an exceptionally large scale and resulted in the magnificent seat of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.

POLAND: Centennial Hall in Wrocław

The Centennial Hall, a landmark in the history of reinforced concrete architecture, was erected in 1911-1913 by the architect Max Berg as a multi-purpose recreational building, situated in the Exhibition Grounds. In form it is a symmetrical quatrefoil with a vast circular central space that can seat some 6,000 persons. The 23m-high dome is topped with a lantern in steel and glass. The Centennial Hall is a pioneering work of modern engineering and architecture, which exhibits an important interchange of influences in the early 20th century, becoming a key reference in the later development of reinforced concrete structures.


The Centennial Hall of Wrocł aw is a creative and innovative example in the development of construction technology in large reinforced concrete structures. The Centennial Hall occupies a key position in the evolution of methods of reinforcement in architecture, and one of the climax points in the history of the use of metal in structural consolidation.
 The Centennial Hall is a pioneering work of modern engineering and architecture, which exhibits an important interchange of influences in the early 20th century, becoming a key reference in the later development of reinforced concrete structures.
As part of the exhibition grounds of Wrocł aw, the Centennial Hall is an outstanding example of modern recreational architecture that served a variety of purposes, ranging from conferences and exhibitions to concerts, theatre and opera.