Every design for Nysa

Nysa sits on the Nysa Kłodzka, where the Sudetes Foreland meets the Silesian Lowland, with the broad Jezioro Nyskie just outside town and the Jezioro Otmuchowskie a little further upstream. The river gave the town its name long before there was a town at all.

What makes Nysa unusual is the sheer weight of its past for a place of its size. One of the oldest towns in Silesia, it was the capital of a duchy ruled by the bishops of Wrocław from 1290 to 1742, a centre of printing and learning, and later a fortress, ringed by works such as Fort II, the Reduta Kapucyńska and the Reduta Kardynalska. Charles de Gaulle was held in a prisoner-of-war camp here, and in communist times the town was best known for the ZSD Nysa van.

The Gothic Kościół pw. Świętego Jakuba i Świętej Agnieszki, a Historic Monument of Poland, dominates the skyline, and the Wieża Ziębicka rises over the old streets. Close by stands the Piękna Studnia – the name simply means 'the beautiful well'.