I haven’t worked out why they picked the places that they did for this sign, perhaps they’re twin towns or something similar. But it reminded me that I must go back to Perugia, it’s seven years since I last went. I’m not sure that I’ve heard of the other places.
I haven’t been to any of these places either, but I’m sure that Richard has spoken about Rovaniemi. That’s a real bird sitting on top of the sign as well, it’s not a decorative element that they’ve added.
House Cafe is a modern style coffee shop which is located on the main market square, and is particularly well reviewed. So it seemed worth just having a visit for research purposes.
I never have a clue whether a cafe is table service or order at the counter, but I think I guessed correctly with this one. I ordered at the counter, and I liked the very clear signage so that it wasn’t a guessing game of the options that were available. The service was efficient and friendly and I liked the relaxed atmosphere that the cafe had.
The cakes looked rather appetising. I went for the chocolate cake with raspberries, although it was a close call as the meringue at the top looked equally appealing. I realised later that the meringue is the cafe’s speciality, so on reflection I should have ordered slices of both cakes. Sometimes research is onerous by its very nature….
The coffee had a rich and pleasant taste, whilst the cake portion was generous and it was moist and full of flavour. The coffee and cake was part of an offer which was around £3, very reasonable value given the quality and how pleasant the surroundings were.
The interior was warm and cosy, with a few people dotted around with laptops and seeming to use the cafe as their temporary working environment. They had made a good choice. The outside seating area at the front of the cafe was also modern looking and welcoming, but I wasn’t going to contend with wasps or other autumnal insects.
These chairs were inside the entrance door area of the cafe and I wasn’t quite sure whether they were decorative or whether customers were allowed to sit in them.
In the city’s market square there is a 3D plan of how Olsztyn used to look, and it was created in 2013 to mark 660 years since the settlement was founded. Olsztyn was initially known as Allenstein when it was founded in 1353 by the Teutonic Knights.
The first church on this site was constructed from wood in the fourteenth century, soon after the settlement of Allenstein (the original name of Olsztyn) was created. The current building dates from 1596, although the side chapels were reconstructed in the mid-eighteenth century.
During the Napoleonic Wars of the early nineteenth century the French held 1,500 Russian prisoners in the church. The Russian troops destroyed most of the wooden items in the church by setting fire to them in order to keep warm.
In the early 1860s there were concerns that the building might collapse, but renovation works were completed to ensure that the church could remain in use. There was a large fire in the 1890s which damaged the restored interior, but again the damage was repaired.
The interior of the church is quite dark, although the altar area is well lit from the stained glass window at the rear. The church was designed in the Gothic style, and I liked the patterned decoration on the ceiling. The church was elevated to the status of a pro-cathedral in 1945 and became a basilica minor in 2004.
The organ above the entrance to the rear, giving a better indication of how dark the interior is. I didn’t take too many photos as there were a number of worshippers in the church, and it didn’t seem appropriate to try and take photos around them.
The basilica is clearly very proud of the visit of John Paul II in June 1991 and it’s marked by way of signage, in the door panels, an external sculpture and internal artworks.
The stained glass in one of the aisles.
The marker sign, with the scallop shell, outside the basilica which shows that this is on the route of the Camino de Santiago. Although, it’s an enormous journey to get there from this part of eastern Poland, it’d be a true pilgrimage.
