Chelmno - Swiecie

Heading north again today, meeting up with the Vistula near Chelmno. This old city was connected to the Teutonic Knights, a Germanic religious-military order who emerges from the Crusades, controlled  these parts in the 13th and 14th century - and left their mark for hundreds of years to come. 

Chelmno's spectacular white Polish Renaissance town hall. 

The Teutonic Knights built their power through controlling the rich grain trade along the Vistula, and later other areas around the Baltic. 

The Teutonic Knights made Chelmno their first headquarters in Europe. Invited in by the King of Poland they established a base here and began to build their power. Chelmno has remained undamaged by recent wars and retains much of its original look from the Middle Ages. Today it is interesting but obviously needs a little TLC for it to reach the standards of Torun. There were some interesting buildings, in particular the White town hall, considered to be a fine example of Polish Renaissance architecture. 

Around the wall of the town were some beautiful garden displays. 

Most of the architecture has changed with the use of the red brick being distinctive of the Knights favoured building material. The bricks were all made locally. 

Later in the day we moved onto Swiecie, a small historic town with a central square that showed signs of an era of wealth that came with being part of the Vistula trade route. Ornate merchant townhouses dotted the main square but with modern retail alterations their gloss has been eroded. 

Examined closely these fine old merchant houses need some work for they were once great homes. 

Swiecie's market square. 

Another facade needing to be returned to former glory. 

We drove on a few kilometres to a quiet village of  Wielkie Kormosk for our overnight stop.