Piwnica Świdnicka, Wrocław

Piwnica Świdnicka is a restaurant in the medieval cellars of Wrocław’s Old Town Hall, operating since 1273. Its name comes from Świdnica, where strong dark beer was brewed and sent here during the Middle Ages. Above the entrance, you can see Christian Behrens’s sculpture of a drunken reveler holding a jug and beer mug, with his furious wife raising a shoe against him.

That comic scene captures the cellar’s long connection with drinking and public life. A table inside records visitors whose names include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Frederic Chopin, and Joseph von Eichendorff. The cellar has remained a restaurant through most of its history, though its rooms later served other purposes after the war. It reopened in 2022, and a craft brewery now operates within the restaurant.