Toruń Cathedral

What makes it special

The presbytery walls carry Gothic paintings from the fourteenth century. On the wall behind the altar, two large figures show the church's patrons, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.

The high altar is a Gothic triptych of St Wolfgang. The church also holds a monumental medieval Last Judgement, painted as many separate scenes.

More than a dozen Renaissance and Baroque altars stand along the three naves.

The Copernicus chapel, the one most visitors come for, holds the Gothic font where Nicolaus Copernicus was baptised in 1473. About a century later, a Renaissance epitaph with his portrait was hung in the same chapel, and it is still there.

Up in the tower, the Tuba Dei hangs in a massive wooden frame. Cast in 1500, it is the largest Gothic bell in Poland and weighs over seven tons.

Visiting

Once inside, walk up the nave to the presbytery first. Look at the wall paintings of the two Johns, then at the Wolfgang triptych on the high altar.

Come back down the church through the side naves, stopping at the altars along the way and finding the Last Judgement.

End the church part of the visit in the Copernicus chapel.

Then take the tower stairs. Partway up you pass the Tuba Dei; keep climbing to the viewpoint at the top.