Building Bridges Using the Five Senses: Students of Ks Kwiatkowski Secondary School in Bychawa at an architecture lesson

The best way to learn about history and architecture is to see it with your own eyes and touch it with your hands. That's why students from ks. Kwiatkowski Secondary School in Bychawa went on a trip to Kazimierz Dolny, an old, picturesque town with numerous fine examples of different architectural styles.
The village which gave the beginning to the town was establisehed in the early Middle Ages. From the 13th century, an important land trade route ran through Kazimierz, which contributed to the development and determined the character of the town. The oldest building, a stone watchtower, was erected in the 13th century in order to guard and watch over peaceful trade in the town.
In the 14th century, King Casimir III the Great (in Polish: Kazimierz III Wielki) transformed the medieval settlement into a town by granting it a municipal charter. A local parish was established and King Casimir also funded the construction of the local castle.
The town enjoyed its greatest prosperity in the 16th and the first half of the 17th century, due to the trade in grain conducted along the Vistula River. After the Polish-Swedish wars in the following years that trade declined, and this freeze in economic development enabled the town to preserve its Renaissance appearance.
Since the 19th century it has become a popular holiday destination, attracting artists and summer residents.
Here, our students could see examples of two most visible architecture styles in the town: a gothic castle and a defensive tower from the 14th century and beautiful Renaissance tenement houses in the town main square from the early 17th century.
Students could compare the buildings, they made notes of the main diferences between the styles: the form, materials used and ornament details. They also tried to draw their own imaginative buildings in one of the two styles.