Szczecin in the PRL Museum
Szczecin
a private museum of everyday life from 1952-1989 with thousands of exhibits in themed zones
a private museum of everyday life from 1952-1989 with thousands of exhibits in themed zones
Things to do in Centrum, Szczecin: star-shaped squares, 19th-century tenement houses, a basilica, several museums and a café on the 22nd floor.
Centrum is the part of the Śródmieście district where most routes can be covered on foot, because the sights stand close together. You will find squares with streets radiating from a single point, Art Nouveau and eclectic tenement houses, former institutional buildings, churches and a few places for rainy weather. The neighbouring Nowe Miasto is different in character, with its gate, town hall and the area around the railway station.
Start with the squares, because they give this part of Szczecin its layout. Begin at Plac Grunwaldzki, the largest star-shaped square in the city, and follow the axis set by Jana Pawła II Avenue. Along the way you will pass tenement houses, monuments and churches, and each next stop is right beside the previous one.
It helps to plan the walk in a few short stretches. The first is around Plac Grunwaldzki, the second is Plac Lotników with the State Archive, and the third is Niepodległości Avenue with the palace and the post office. The fourth, from Plac Rodła towards Plac Żołnierza Polskiego, leads to the northern edge of the Old Town. Each takes about an hour at most, if you do not go inside.
Centrum has several squares where streets meet at one point, and each has its own character. They lie along one axis, Piłsudskiego Street, so it is easy to visit them in order.
Plac Grunwaldzki has eight roads converging on it, a late 19th-century layout modelled on Parisian solutions. Its geometry also inspired the logo of the Szczecin European Capital of Culture 2016 project. On the square stands the Sailor Monument, a copper sculpture of a helmsman at the ship's wheel from 1980. Plac Odrodzenia, designed in 1882, is a roundabout lined with eclectic tenement houses. Further on lies Plac Szarych Szeregów, formerly Arndtplatz, where five streets meet.
Plac Lotników, once Augustaplatz, feels different, with a pedestrian space in the middle. There stands the Bartolomeo Colleoni monument, an equestrian statue of the condottiere, a cast modelled on the work in Venice, produced in the early 20th century. The same square holds the sculptural accent Ptak (Bird), a dark grey pigeon on a broad plinth, installed in the 1980s. Plac Rodła is a transport hub crossed by tram and bus lines, and Plac Żołnierza Polskiego closes the Old Town from the north and has a tourist information pavilion.
The densest cluster of historic buildings is formed by the tenement houses around Plac Grunwaldzki and neighbouring streets, plus the buildings along Niepodległości Avenue. Most are best seen from the street, because people live in them or institutions work there.
The August Mintz tenement house from 1898 stands at the corner of Jana Pawła II Avenue and Śląska Street, and its ground floor holds a pharmacy with dispensing-room fittings more than a hundred years old. At 38 Śląska Street you will find the Wilhelm Gramtz tenement house with putti above the gate and a corner oriel with a helmet roof. A few steps away, at 7 Piłsudskiego Street, stands a house from 1897 designed by Georg Sommenstuhl, with oriels and female figures high on the facade. The rest of that street's eastern frontage did not survive. The group also includes Malczewskiego 34, a U-shaped house nicknamed Kanapka (the Sandwich), the only pre-war building in its block.
On Niepodległości Avenue stands the Pomeranian Estates Palace, a neo-Baroque building from 1893-1895, today linked with the Academy of Art. Next door stands the post office building from 1905, a brick neo-Gothic structure with two monumental portals. It still works as a post office, so it is best seen from outside. This applies also to the State Archive: a brick building from the early 1900s, once the Prussian archive, still serves that institution. At 1 św. Wojciecha Street there is also an Art Nouveau tenement house from 1902-1903 with an outbuilding, a courtyard and a fountain.
Centrum has two churches of very different character, both easy to fit into a walk. One is a neo-Gothic basilica from the late 19th century, the other a reinforced-concrete church from the early 20th century.
The Basilica of St John the Baptist at 3a Bogurodzicy Street is a neo-Gothic hall church from 1888-1890, a minor basilica and Marian shrine since 2008. The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at Plac Zwycięstwa was built in 1913-1919 as a Protestant garrison church. Locals simply call it Serce (the Heart), and today it is a shrine run by the Christ Fathers.
Centrum has at least four indoor places that work in bad weather: two museums, a café with a view and a play café for children. Each has a different profile, so it is easy to match them to age and mood.
Be Happy Museum is an interactive museum of optical illusions, ball pits and game zones, with no ban on touching the exhibits. The Szczecin in the PRL Museum at 51 Śląska Street shows everyday life from 1952-1989 in themed zones: flat, trade, allotment, sport and leisure. More about the city's museums is in the article Szczecin museums: from the National Museum to Szczecin in the PRL. Parents with small children can use Zabawa & Kawa at 13 Mazowiecka Street, a café with a play area, a toddler room and a garden. A panorama of the city opens from Café 22, set high up in the Pazim tower close to Plac Rodła, over a coffee or a dessert.
The monuments in Centrum vary, from a large copper sailor to a small figure of a children's book hero. All stand outdoors and can be seen free of charge.
Besides the sailor and Colleoni, stop at the King Matt the First monument. The pink granite figure was unveiled on Children's Day in 1961 and commemorates Janusz Korczak. Matt stands with his head lowered, gazing at a nightingale in his hands, and the figure is low enough for children to come close.
Yes, one: the former military cemetery on św. Wojciecha Street. It is described factually, not as an item for a leisure day out.
The military cemetery was the city's first necropolis of this kind, created around the middle of the 18th century. Today the site is a square on Plac Andersa, and a single boulder from the gravestone of French prisoners recalls its former purpose. A fuller picture of the district is given by the routes in the article A weekend in Szczecin: castle, Chrobry Embankment, underground and parks.
A few dozen, mostly monuments and squares. Some can only be viewed from outside, others are museums and cafés you can enter. For the full breakdown see the pages for historic buildings in Centrum, atmospheric places in Centrum and cemeteries and monuments in Centrum.
Squares, monuments, sculptures and the outsides of tenement houses cost nothing, for example the Sailor Monument, the King Matt the First monument or the Colleoni monument. Entry to museums and cafés is a separate matter, so check the pages of each place.
You can choose Be Happy Museum, the Szczecin in the PRL Museum, Café 22 and Zabawa & Kawa. All lie within Centrum, so there is no need to travel far.
Yes. The sights stand along one axis, Jana Pawła II Avenue and Piłsudskiego Street, and the squares lie close together. The walk can be split into short stretches and the remaining parts left for another day.
The nearest districts are Nowe Miasto and Śródmieście-Północ. Beyond Szczecin, read about the old town of Koszalin.