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.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.