Mini guide part 8

After a visit at the church, we suggest a walk to the city centre. On your way you can take a look at the old cemetery from the end of the 18th century, located at some distance from Jana Pawła II Street. Make sure to see the tomb sculptures gathered around the chapel. The oldest of them and the most interesting - in an empire and classicising style - were manufactured mainly in workshops of Lwów and Kraków.

Leaving the cemetery and taking once more Jana Pawła II Street in the direction of the city centre, we pass the imposing building erected in the second half of the 19th century for the needs of the Starost office, which is also now used by the local authorities. Continuing your walk along Grunwaldzka Street, you should notice the building of the former and current Military Mess. This building with composed elevations untypical of Jarosław used to have banquet, concert and theatre halls. Grunwaldzka Street will take us up to Mickiewicz Square where you will find the modernistic edifice designed by Tadeusz Broniewski to host a Bank.

Also in A. Mickiewicz Square, there is an interesting monumental building - the "Falcon" - designed at the beginning of the 20th century by the famous architect Teodor Talowski for the Gymnastics' Association. The unique correlation of brick and stone and variously decorated projection facades give this building its main character and beauty. The unrivalled appearance of the "Falcon" has deeply influenced the architecture of Jarosław. The seat of MOK (local cultural centre) is presently located in this building, in the past it used to be the seat of authorities and patriotic organisations, which have played a very important role in the city history.

From Mickiewicz Square, you can stroll through the aforementioned park to the San or turn to the right into 3 Maj Street. In the streets diverging from it in the western direction interesting villas were erected at the beginning of the 20th century. 3 Maja Street itself, although characterised by a somewhat diverse and chaotic development, has some buildings that are worth taking look at. Among them, undoubtedly, the edifice erected in the last quarter of the 19th century to become a school. At first, it housed a primary school and later a middle school, presently the Mikołaj Kopernik High School is located there. In the near vicinity of the High School, where once stood a presbytery with a 19th century vicarage building still preserved, there is the contemporary church of the Holy Virgin Queen of Poland. Following 3 Maj Street, we will pass a school building erected at the beginning of the 20th century and named after Queen Jadwiga, a dormitory and the biscuit factory owned by S. Gurgul on the other side of the street. Finally, we arrive at the general hospital open with a great ceremony in 1902. The imposing edifice with a projection façade additionally crowned by three triangular tops is a good example of 19th century architecture and used to meet in the past the highest medical care standards.

Krystyna Kieferling, Zofia Kostka-Bieńkowska