Bydgoszcz, located between the Vistula and Oder rivers, is the seat of Casimir the Great University, and hosts the Pomeranian Philharmonic concert hall and the Opera Nova opera house.  It’s an architectural rich city with neo gothic, neo baroque, neo-classicist , modernist AND … Art Nouveau styles present. Its got a nickname because of this, “little Berlin”! Lots of sculpted tree trunks left on street corners….

“The Man Crossing the River” sculpture by Jerzy Kedziora is fantastic – unveiled in  2004 to commemorate the Polish entry into the EU.

I loved Mill Island (Wyspa Mlynska) – very atmospheric and spectacular – the water, the foot bridges, historic red-brick tenement houses and the beautiful chestnut trees! Older dude trying chin-ups, only just made it. And a concert in the back ground…multi sensory experience all around!! 

‘Garden of Loves'( Kochanowskiego), was in colourful bloom as I walked to take a pic of the female archer statue…designed by Ferdinand Lepke and unveiled in 1910.  

The delightful ‘Deluge Fountain’, a monumental 6m tall sculpture, made of bronze, has stood with all its elements between 1904 and 1943. Needed to be rebuilt after the war….portrays the culmination of a flood, people and animals  who are left because they did not find shelter in a barge! 

Hotel pod Orlem (Eagle Hotel), an icon of 19thC of neo Baroque, was designed by the distinguished architect, Josef Swiecicki, who lays claim to designing about 60 buildings in the city. 

A lovely street , Cieszkowskiego, associated with the dynamic development of the city in the second half of the 19th century.  Its lavish buildings were erected during an economic boom and the consequent revival of construction activity in Bydgoszcz. New frontages were built on a grand scale, using the Art Nouveau design. 

Lots of ‘caryatids’ on buildings  (a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting a lintel on her head).