Poland is Amazing!
At first I was skeptical, but having travelled there, I discovered that Poland is absolutely incredible! It is one of the best countries in Europe for seeing amazing creative historic architecture. The Warsaw old town is remarkable. Many works of architecture in Poland are wonders of the world and do not get the credit they deserve because they exist outside the English-speaking world. In Warsaw I made a decision... Polish architecture is better than anything in England! By then after seven weeks of travel I had seen enough to be convinced. Ok... St Pauls is brilliantly done... but, Polish architecture, (as well as some Eastern Gothic architecture also found in Poland) stirs the imagination like nothing I have seen in Western Europe. The Slavic mentality is a spiritual one: young women and young people always entering church to kneel down and pray (something rarely seen these days in the English lands) and this is reflected in the fantastic and imaginary architecure which is found there.
Raht House
Poland has some amazing town halls. Lots of them play interesting melodies at midday. They are built as a kind of jeweled music box in the center of town. Favourites: Gdansk, Chelmno (The cutest Raht House in Poland?), and Torun. Poznan's is probably the best. At midday people gather to watch mechanical goats pop out and crash horns twelve times at midday.
Here is the Poznan Ratusz (town hall) and the old town:
Look closer at nearby buildings and you can see mythological themes. Suns, moons, and this, the brown man, or Dagda, seen in various cities of Central Europe and elsewhere. He usually holds a bludgeoning weapon and a shield or animal skin. He is a sort of animal force in the world. That is eiher a figure-8 shield, (which would be an incredible bronze age survival), or simply and far more likey, a compound bow with arrow.
