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“We were reluctant to leave Wrocław”. Frederic Chopin in the Silesian capital

In the 19th century, Wrocław was on the travel itinerary of many well known Poles. Most of them only hung around for a few days, but others stayed for longer. In this context, interesting descriptions of the city and its monuments and portrayals of everyday life have been preserved. A pertinent subject in those days were the links between what was then a German city and Poland, and the fate of its Polish inhabitants. Frederic Chopin (1810–1849) came here four times and was quite obviously interested in the music in the metropolis on the Oder, which also afforded him the opportunity to give private concerts.

Frederic Chopin monument in Wrocław

Krzysztof Ruchniewicz / Porta Polonica

“Zur Goldenen Gans”

There were a number of hotels in the city offering various standards. For Poles, the “Zur Goldenen Gans” hotel was right up their street because they could stay in clean rooms and enjoy delicious cooking. These, and other upmarket features, were something that this accommodation was renowned for, and it retained this reputation until the Second World War. The hotel was by no means cheap, as another famous Pole, Juliusz Słowacki, who stayed in Wrocław in March 1831, wrote in a letter to his mother on 12 April 1831:

“Naughty Wrocław – the people in the ‘Goldenen Gans’ really took me for a ride when I paid 30 Taler for 16 days, and for that I only had the pleasure of living in an ancient house whose roofs are higher than walls that are three floors high, whilst a cock crows and cats cry under the rooftops.” (Cited from Mikulski, ...)

The owner of the hotel was very enterprising and did everything he could to attract guests, even from the Russian partitioned territories [of Poland]. He put adverts in the Poznan and Warsaw papers in which he extolled the virtues of his establishment. He allegedly claimed that

„“(…) Polish and French are spoken in this hotel, and we subscribe to newspapers in these languages.”

During the Second World War. the hotel was destroyed and subsequently torn down.

“When we came to Wrocław from all corners of the globe in 1945, the ‘Zur Goldenen Gans’ hotel was still in the Ofiar Oświęcimskich-Straße – recalls Tadeusz Mikulski, a literary historian. There it stood – a huge square that had been gutted by fire during the siege of Wrocław. The way to the Goldenen Gans passed through a street strewn with bricks and stones and it took a certain amount of stamina to overcome these obstacles. We were quite emotional as we approached the ruins. On the wall, a large gilded bird with its wing broken off was still clinging on at the level of the second floor. It was the golden goose, the heraldic animal of the hotel.”