Nysa

Nysa was the residence of the bishops of Wroclaw, who ruled a small principality from here, and by the seventeenth century it had so many churches, monasteries and Jesuit foundations that it was known as the Silesian Rome. The church of St James and St Agnes is the survivor that carries this: a fourteenth-century hall church with one of the widest medieval roofs in Europe over a single span, a free-standing unfinished bell tower beside it that was never taken above its first stages, and a treasury. Around the town the Prussians built a bastioned fortress from the 1740s after taking Silesia, and several of its works survive on the edges - Fort Prussia and the water bastion among them - with tours through the casemates. The town centre was very badly damaged in 1945 and rebuilt in a modern idiom, so the historic pieces stand among postwar blocks rather than in a preserved old town.

History

The river Nysa is mentioned in 991, when the region belonged to the Duchy of Poland under Mieszko I, and the town, probably founded in the 10th century, was the capital of a duchy ruled by the bishops of Wrocław from 1290 to 1742. Its fortifications date from 1350, the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493 named it among the major towns of Central and Eastern Europe, and in 1624 the Jesuit Collegium Carolinum, one of the best-known schools in Silesia, was founded here (Wikipedia, Nysa, Poland).

What to look for

• St James's hall church - one of the widest medieval roof spans in Europe.
• An unfinished belfry - free-standing, never carried above its lower stages.
• Prussian fortifications - Fort Prussia and other works, with casemate tours.
• A bishops' capital - the Silesian Rome, in what survives of its churches.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Practical notes

The centre is largely postwar rebuilding - the monuments stand in isolation. Fort tours run seasonally and to a schedule. The treasury has restricted hours. St James closes during services.

Nearby

Paczkow is south-west; Otmuchow lake is west.

Key facts