There is no doubt that Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Toruń !! It is much harder to determine exactly in which house because rich family Copernicus, related to the most important patrician families in the town, owned then several properties including the tenement house in St Anna Street (now 15 Kopernika Street ) and in the most prestigious part of the town, at 36 Old Town Square ( in the neibourhood of the Under the Star House ). In the second described house which was rebuilt many times and demolished by fires, has not preserved any elements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. However, the first of the tenement houses - as so-called store-house characteristic of Hanseatic cities – has survived since the Middle Ages in a little altered state. Its walls, the construction and the decoration reflect the history of the town and its residents, trade and artistic contacts of Toruń and changes in mentality, tastes and way of life of Toruń. The original interior and furnishing allow you to move into the era of Copernicus and explore the daily life of a rich burghers’ family. Gorgeous, richly ornamented front elevation comes from the twenties of fifteenth century. By the end of the fifteenth century there were a perron in front of the tenement house , traces of which we can observe on the south wall of the basement. During the restoration works carried out at the end of 1972, some nineteenth -century partition walls were demolished and restored the building to its original layout. This allowed not only expose the preserved design of particular interior, but also allow to show their original function. In the past, the house belonged to the Cracow merchant, Nicolaus Copernicus, who came to Toruń about 1456 and here he married to Barbara Watzenrode belonging to the patrician family, thus entering the elite of our town.

Through Gothic portal we can enter the Great Hall which fulfilled both commercial and residential functions. Original elements of construction and equipment, including the ceiling from the first half of the fifteenth century covered with the modern polychrome and the kitchenette counter have preserved to this day. It was possible to go down from the great hall to the basement, to go out in the corridor to the courtyard and to go on the stairs to the rooms on the upper floors. The small gallery was built at the end of the sixteenth century along the south wall. On its underside, an original polychrome from this period preserved. The great hall took on a representative character. Commercial transactions were dealt with in here. Two small rooms were built on the western side. Lower one served as a space for the kitchen. In the eighteenth century, the ceiling, the external walls of overhanging inner room and the staircase’s railing were covered with polychrome.

A burgher’s family life was concentrated in the room behind the great hall. Not only the ceiling decorated with eighteenth -century polychrome, but also richly ornamented Gothic wardrobe from the second half of the fifteenth century and other furniture from this period: stools (called zydle) and special chairs (called krzesła nożycowe) attract the attention in the room. From the windows of the room you can see the yard of the tenement house surrounded by a medieval wall, one of the few remaining in Toruń and the adjacent outhouses. There is a model of Toruń from about 1500 in one of them. The model is accompanied by light - sound show depicting the most important events in the history of Toruń, pearls of Gothic architecture and spatial arrangement of the second half of the fifteenth century, as well as places associated with Copernicus and his family.

Scientist’s Studio in the right upper little room of the tenement house, interior with a characteristic so-called pear chimney, also refers to a figure of Copernicus. On the table in the workshop, there are books with astronomical charts and a reprint of the manuscript of " De revolutionibus ... ", works of Toruń astronomer. In the right corner, there is a globe of William Bleau with seventeenth -century map of the world and the seventeenth - century painting " Scholar in the studio ", attributed to Monogrammist IS – the artist whose work was influenced by the young Rembrandt and Gerard Dou was hung here. On the left side of the sixteenth -century cabinet - decorated with interesting woodcarving with the scene of the Last Supper- an optical microscope from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries was placed, one of the first such devices.

The living room with a white ceiling. Due to changes in the function of great hall, a family life moved into the room in the second passage and into the first floor of the back passage - into so-called common room which was slightly lower room and therefore the warmer one. The outcrop of polychrome depicting grapevine and the inside of the fireplace come from the 16th century. On the southern wall, next to the doo

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See and Do

• Copernicus House Toruń (0.0 miles) - There is no doubt that Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Toruń !! It is much harder to determine exac...
• Old Town Hall Toruń (0.1 miles) - Throughout the centuries the Old Town Hall has been the most famous and representative secular edifi...
• Under the Star House Toruń (0.1 miles) - The Star House is an excellent example of the historical lavish residences of wealthy burghers and p...
• The Museum of the History of Toruń (The Eskens' House) Toruń (0.1 miles) - Relatively little information about Eskens’ House preserved. It is known it was built as a family ...
• Explorers’ Museum of Tony Halik Toruń (0.2 miles) - It is said that journeys educate- and it is the truth. They bring us closer to the knowledge in the ...