A CITY OF CULTURE

Wrocław is a city where culture plays a special role. It has an opera house, an operetta and numerous theatres. Jerzy Grotowski ran his experimental Laboratorium Theatre here, the well-known poet Tadeusz Różewicz and the founder of Wrocław's pantomime theatre, Henryk Tomaszewski, worked here as well. Many famous events take place in the city, including the Actors' Song Festival and the Wratislavia Cantans Festival.

Wrocław also has many museums – the most significant being the National Museum with paintings by outstanding Polish artists, such as Jan Matejko, Jacek Malczewski and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, otherwise known as Witkacy, followed by the famous Racławice Panorama, painted by a group of artists led by Jan Styka and Wojciech Kossak. This giant painting, 120 m in circumference and 15 m tall, presents the Battle of Racławice in 1794, in which the Poles under the command of Tadeusz Kościuszko beat the Russians. This monumental artwork was brought to Wrocław from Lviv in 1946, but it took another 39 years before the authorities – which feared an awakening of nationalist feeling among the Poles – agreed for the painting to be displayed in a rotunda specially built to house it.