Painted market square
Wrocław
One of Europe's largest market squares, ringed by tall gabled townhouses each in a different colour.
Why Wrocław is townhouse yellow
Wrocław is the main city of Silesia in south-west Poland, built on islands and banks of the Oder river. Its market square, the Rynek, was laid out in the 13th century and is one of the largest in Europe. Around it stand tall, narrow townhouses with ornate gables, painted yellow, green, pink, blue and orange. In the middle is a Gothic town hall of dark red brick. The city was badly damaged in 1945, and the square was rebuilt in the following decades from old plans and pictures. Small bronze dwarfs, now numbering in the hundreds, are hidden around the streets; they began as a symbol of an anti-communist protest movement of the 1980s.
#E9C04ATownhouse green#7FA88ATownhouse rose#D98C8CBrick Gothic red#9E4A3ASky blue#8FB5D9Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Wrocław" on Wikipedia. If you know Wrocław and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
🇵🇱 The merchants' coloured housesPoznańA row of narrow arcaded houses in bright colours beside a Renaissance town hall on the old market square.
🇮🇳 Birthplace of Krishna, home of HoliMathuraKrishna's birthplace celebrates Holi for more than a week, with processions, music and coloured powder.
🇮🇳 The yellow French quarterPondicherryThe old French quarter by the sea is painted mustard yellow with white trim, shaded by bougainvillea.
🇮🇳 Yellow taxis, red and white sarisKolkataYellow Ambassador taxis, red-brick colonial offices and white saris with red borders mark Bengal's capital.
🇮🇳 City of the kaali-peeliMumbaiBlack-and-yellow taxis, known as kaali-peeli, are the moving colour of India's largest city.
🇮🇳 Goa's Latin QuarterFontainhasA small quarter of Panaji where Portuguese-era houses are painted yellow, blue and red with white trim.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Mathura In: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Pondicherry In: Karthik Easvur, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kolkata In: Ketanmehta4u, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Mumbai In: iMahesh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Fontainhas In: iMahesh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Poznan Pl: Stanisław Szewczyk, CC BY 3.0, source