Every design for Lublin

Did you know that the union which created the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was sealed in Lublin? The parliament of that year met here, and the city later became the seat of the Crown Tribunal, the highest appeal court in the land.

What makes Lublin its own is its position between worlds. It grew on the trade route between Vilnius and Kraków, it is the largest Polish city east of the Vistula, and in the age of the Reformation it was a meeting point for Calvinists and the radical Polish Brethren. The river Bystrzyca cuts the city in two: ravines and hills to the west, flat land to the east. The Old Town, now a national monument, holds the Brama Krakowska, the Brama Grodzka and the Wieża Trynitarska together, with the Zamek w Lublinie on its hill just beyond.

This is a city on its way to becoming a European Capital of Culture, but it has never needed a title to feel significant. Walk through the Brama Krakowska once and you understand why people carry Lublin with them.