Tarnów In Your Pocket

Eighty kilometres east of Kraków near the crossroads of two ancient trade routes lies the charming city of Tarnów. First mentioned in a document dated 1124, the so-called Pearl of the Renaissance offers visitors to southeastern Poland a superb base to discover the wealth of sights in the region from the comfort of a small town with a big history. Brimming with wonderfully preserved Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance architecture, Tarnów boasts a rich, colourful and often disturbing past, from the Scottish settlers who arrived in the 16th century to set up the first banks to the large Jewish population who contributed so much to the life and culture of the city and who were wiped out in the flicker of an eye a mere two generations ago. The once privately owned city and home to the illustrious, avant-garde nobleman Jan Tarnowski, Tarnów was the first Polish city to free itself from 146 years of captivity in October 1918. Rapidly gaining a reputation as a noteworthy tourist destination, today’s Tarnów strikes the perfect balance between history and modernity, offering a less hectic and more intimate alternative to its large and noisy neighbour to the west.