Wroclaw is one of the oldest cities in Poland with a long and turbulent
history that is manifest on every corner. Throughout the ages, the city
has been passed from hand to hand in many different circumstances. The
city has belonged to the Poles, the Czechs, the Hungarians and the
Germans. Although almost seventy percent of its urban fabric was
destroyed in the Second World War, Wroclaw managed to rise from the
ruins and now boasts many an architectural monument. The city currently
features nearly eight thousand tenements - one of the largest complexes
of this type found in Poland and, furthermore, in Europe. The oldest
tenements originated in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and are
surrounded by Baroque, Classicist, Art Nouveau and modernist
architecture. This publication comprises a compelling selection of more
than 150 buildings, from avant-garde residential blocks dating from the
sixties and seventies via the Centennial Hall - recognised by the
American Getty Foundation as one of the ten most important examples of
twentieth century modernism - to modern buildings and the Ozeaneum in
the Zoo.