Day 4 - Thursday

Published: 01.09.2016

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No, no, I was not in the Sistine Chapel, but in the venerable University of Wroclaw, called Leopoldina. There I went straight to a spectacular special exhibition of the faculty...

...into. (I had already heard a report about it on WDR5 Leonardo). There, the first fluorescent ion X-ray machine was presented, and you could even try it out:

I was led behind a canvas (arrow), the fluorescence emitter (middle left) generated the radiation, the semicircle ion hydrant (middle) detected the reflected gamma ions, which were transmitted directly to the iPad (right) via the Huygens eyepiece (under the globe). The image could then be taken with you. Fortunately, the iPad is backward compatible...

We continued to the most famous hall of the university, the Aula Leopoldina. At first, I thought a modern play was being staged here:

But then it quickly became clear that restorers had taken over the direction!

Then I went up to the Astronomical Tower. But they didn't want to let me in because I didn't have the right ticket - probably because of my Polish language skills. I guess I only paid for the X-ray examination ;-) Doesn't matter.

I took the 'Sistine Chapel photo' above in the Oratorium Marianum (music hall), a already restored Baroque hall. I just went in with a tour group - and a fake ticket ;-)

Pan Tadeusz

On Rynek 6 (west side), a new museum called the Pan Tadeusz Museum, also known as Ossolineum, opened just a few months ago. After yesterday's experience at the National Museum, I was naturally skeptical, and who or what is Pan Tadeusz anyway?

I'll make it short:

Pan Tadeusz is the national epic of the Poles, just like Erlkönig is for us. Its poet Adam Mickiewicz also plays a decisive role in the idea and fight for an independent Poland.

The museum convinced me so much that I was in there for a whole 4 hours. An absolute high-tech museum, even with friendly staff!