One of the city’s most impressive buildings is its train station. Originally built in the years 1855–1857 to form the starting point of the Oberschlesische Eisenbahn (Upper Silesian Railway) it replaced an earlier structure built 1841-1842. Its designer was Royal Prussian architect Wilhelm Grapow and although it had only one platform it was still regarded as the biggest station in Europe. Extended to incorporate 5 new covered platforms in 1899 the Neo-Gothic construction features turrets and crenulations giving it the appearance of a grandiose castle in the middle of Wrocław.

As part of a massive nationwide renovation program the station has been the subject of a 293 million zloty redevelopment to restore its former glory while completely modernising the facilities. The surrounding area is also benefiting from the development with new green areas created around the transport hub. City authorities are pressing to get it fully functional in time for the Euro 2012 football tournament in early June, and it's uncertain at this point if the work will indeed be completed in time (fingers crossed, folks). As such, it's difficult to say what sort of travails travellers to Wrocław in May and June will face and even what sort of facilities can be expected. To accommodate the major construction works, the city has closed the main train station and moved the ticket office to a temporary building located on the opposite side of the platforms. This temporary station building (Dworzec Tymczasowy) at ul. Sucha 10/12 (B-6) on the eastern side of the main station complex will continue to be in use at least until the end of May when work is optimistically scheduled to be complete on the main building. Since the crystal ball is cloudy on this issue, we can only stress that travellers give themselves additional time to negotiate the confusion and diversions which are currently in place.