Toruń, gothic and UNESCO

On 4 December 1997, during the 21st plenary session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Naples, the Medieval Town of Toruń was listed among UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage sites. The World Heritage List includes properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value, properties testifying to the great achievements of civilized man and those created by natural phenomena which deserve special protection.

The list was started by the force of the UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (adopted in Paris, 1972). To date nearly 180 countries of the world have ratified this document.

Toruń boasts the second largest number – after Krakow – of authentic Gothic buildings and works of art in Poland. Among the arguments used for the Medieval Town of Toruń to support its nomination for a UNESCO World Heritage site was the authenticity of the medieval and Gothic character of the town. Despite numerous wars and military conflicts Toruń was involved in, the town has avoided extensive damage, though many original buildings (St. Nicholas Church and the Teutonic Castle) fell into irreparable ruin.

The study that made up the principal part of the application to include Toruń among World Heritage sites prepared by Toruń researchers emphasized the uncanny and unique character of the heritage of the town. Many medieval buildings have survived in Toruń to this day. They all are representative of the best in Gothic brick architecture; residential buildings make up the largest and the best-preserved complex of Gothic residential architecture in Northern Europe. The original street pattern that has been preserved to a remarkable extent until today is a valuable material source for researchers interested in the medieval way of life and how medieval European towns developed. In a quite unique way does the Town Hall reconcile its different functions: judiciary, administrative and commercial. The Medieval Town Complex bears features of a river port, of a double town (Old and New Town) and of a town organized around a castle. Though a highly independent town, Toruń bears traces of influences coming from the leading centres of European art, such as Bruges, Ghent and Lubbock. Those features support the claim that there existed a cultural community of the Hanseatic League of merchant towns.

In the Middle Ages Toruń witnessed a great number of historically significant events. It played a key role in the Christianization and colonization of Prussia, acted as a main go-between in the hanseatic trade with Eastern Europe and was the most important centre in this part of the continent in which the middle-class identity was forming at that time.

A report written up by Professor Jonas Glemza from Lithuania, a representative of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Committee who paid an expert visit in Toruń in October 1997, supports the claims of researchers from Toruń. His positive opinion on the material drafted in the application and also his remarks on the condition of the town most favourably influenced the decision made by the UNESCO Committee in 1997. The report enumerates the reasons why the Medieval Town of Toruń should become a universal property. In his report Prof. Glemza draws attention to several unique features of Toruń: the valuable early buildings – medieval churches and the Town Hall, which are outstanding works of man’s creative genius. The layout of the place still preserves many original features of a medieval fortified town (the city walls, gates, remains of a castle and the location of the Old and New Towns).

The Old Town of Toruń found itself on the list of seven major historical centres in Poland. It may serve as an outstanding example of a medieval town, a river port in which the history of Poland, Germany, Prussia, Scandinavia and Lithuania was made. The Old and New Towns also preserve valuable Gothic, Renaissance and baroque buildings. The town also boasts a remarkable two-ring fortification system – a historical monument of 19th-century architecture. Last but not least, Toruń is a unique hanseatic town and the birthplace of Nicholas Copernicus.

Apart from the Word Heritage List UNESCO keeps the Memory of the World Register of documentary heritage, which lists universally significant historical items from library and archives collections. In January 1997 Poland submitted nomination proposals for Nicolaus Copernicus’ masterpiece De revolutionibus orbium coelestum, now kept in the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow, and an impressive Collection of Wax Plates of Toruń from 1350 – 1530 kept in the State Archives of Toruń.
The Medieval Town of Toruń enjoys its well-deserved place among other thirteen UNESCO World Heritage properties in Poland, including Krakow’s Historic Centre, the Wieliczka Salt Mine, Białowieża Forest and the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork.