Tarnów: exquisite, unexpected and utterly beguiling
Broadly speaking, it’s a rule that works: if airports are uniformly bland and leave you guessing what may lie beyond, then train stations, on the other hand, often serve as a miniature snapshot of the city they represent.
In that respect, Tarnów’s station presents an accurate portrayal of what you can expect. Completed in 1910 in spectacular Austro-Hungarian Secessionist style, it instantly seduces with its unrestrained majesty. Harking to the kind of era depicted in Agatha Christie’s works (and, actually, the Orient Express is no stranger to these platforms), it could have been built with intrigue in mind.
Across chessboard-patterned floors composed of English tiles, travellers cross into interiors trimmed with early 20th century paintings of Tatra landscapes and underneath elaborate lights that dangle from heaven-reaching ceilings. To be here is to wallow in the nostalgic glow of bygone times.
Of course, outside the expected line-up of lavishly moustached cab drivers await, but if you’re travelling light then there’s no better suggestion than to make the easy walk north east to Old Town.
Doing so takes you past the rickety but charming home of Tarnovia, one of the nation’s oldest football clubs, as well as an 18th century former tavern that’s since been converted into the city’s Ethnographic Museum. Though currently closed because of you-know-what, it’s to here one should usually head to view what is commonly labelled as Europe’s most important exhibition dedicated to Roma culture.
More: https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/tarnow-exquisite-unexpected-and-utterly-beguiling-17759