Plac Wolności, Wrocław

Plac Wolności is the broad square and park running beside the southern stretch of Wrocław’s City Moat, between Świdnicka and Krupnicza streets. Its name honours freedom, but this open ground began as a military exercise field beside the Prussian royal palace. After Napoleon’s victory over Prussia, the city’s walls were ordered demolished between eighteen ten and eighteen twelve, and a promenade took their place.

The enlarged square still hosted parades and major public ceremonies; the palace was extended so the king could watch military displays from his bedroom and study. This space has also witnessed darker gatherings. On the tenth of May nineteen thirty-three, it was used during the Nazi book-burning campaign.

After the Second World War, a temporary railway line crossed the square, carrying rubble and bricks away from the devastated city. At the thick glass panels set into the paving, you can see how this site keeps its older layers close. Archaeologists uncovered fourteenth-century shell towers beneath the square; they are enclosed below the glass for viewing, while red paving slabs trace the buried line of the former defensive wall. Nearby, the National Forum of Music, completed in twenty fifteen, brought concert halls, exhibition space and a large underground car park beneath Plac Wolności.