Toruń after the gingerbread: a fortress, the stars and a boulevard named after Philadelphia
A nineteenth-century fortress the guides skip, a planetarium opened two days before Copernicus's birthday, and a promenade named after a sister city across the ocean.
- Free
- Bulwar Filadelfijski
- Fortress Museum
- €7.07, closed on Mondays
- Planetarium
- €5.71, entry for a timed show
Toruń's postcard is Gothic, and these three places come from later times. Prussia ringed the Gothic town with fortifications. The town waited more than forty years for its own planetarium. And the promenade along the Vistula is named after a city on the other side of the ocean.
1. The Toruń Fortress Museum: the defences the guides skip
The Gothic Old Town is only the core. Around it, in the second half of the nineteenth century, Prussia raised a ring of fortifications to defend the kingdom's eastern border. The museum opened only in 2020, in the building of a former barracks by the Chełmińska Gate. The fortress itself is considered one of the best-preserved fortress complexes in Europe. Its exhibits trace the fortifications' history from the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century, with a model of the whole fortress and soldiers' equipment from several periods.
Entry is €7.07, a visit takes up to 2 h, and it's closed on Mondays.
Opened two days before Copernicus's birthday
The idea that the town which gave the world Copernicus should have its own planetarium first came up in 1953, but it wasn't realised until after 1989, when the town decided to convert its old gasworks. The planetarium opened on 17 February 1994, two days before the 521st anniversary of Copernicus's birth. Its halls are still in the same former gasworks building today.
Entry is €5.71, and tickets are bought for a specific show time; it's closed on Mondays.
A name from 1976
The promenade, almost two kilometres long, runs along the right bank of the Vistula and leads to the bridge onto Kępa Bazarowa island. It was named in 1976, after Toruń's twinning with Philadelphia in the United States. The walk costs nothing, and the same path takes you on to the view from across the river.
Before you go
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
Do you need to book the Fortress Museum?
No. Individual visitors just walk in, and only groups of fifteen or more book ahead.
Ready for Toruń?
Where to next
What to eat in Toruń
→The town is known for gingerbread, but what you actually eat is żurek, oven-baked dumplings and a pancake…
Malbork · 117 km
→Europe's largest brick castle on the bank of the Nogat, with the town and its old square right beside it
How well does Toruń suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Front row for the next trip
Leave your email and we'll let you know when a new destination or story goes up.