Sandomierz – the city, which became famous thanks to the popularity of television series Father Matthew. Kris likes the show and was very curious about the travel to the place where they were filmed. He also had a quiet hope when visiting come across a film crew and see the action live.
Sometimes we even laugh at that Sandomierz is a criminal basin of Poland – at the end of every episode comes here for various crimes, which serial priest helps to resolve. In fact, this is a quiet town with a rich history.
Walking by Sandomierz started from the Żeromskiego street where we were able to park the car outside the paid parking zone. Walking towards the Old Town, we went through the gothic Opatowska gate made in the fourteenth century, which is part of the city walls. The tower can be accessed. Admission is ticketed. On the first floor we’ve found the ticket office, on next floors exhibition of photographs from the Father Matthewseries. On the roof of the tower gate is an observation deck, which offers a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside.
Opatowska Gate has a height of 33 m. In the television series many times we can see how Father Matthew travels on his bicycle just under the gate.
After a visit to the gate we went further south, down the Opatowska street. After a while we get to the Market Square. Another place known from the TV show. Children was looking for memories of buildings known from the TV screen. We’ve visited the Tourist Information Centre, where we managed to get an information leaflet on the sites used in the production of the film. We’ve found out that the buildings, in fact, have a different purpose than in the movie (eg. Revenue is in serial presented as police station). Not all the scenes are shot in this city, because even serial church is a church in the clay pit near Otwock and the rectory is located in Warsaw. However there is a lot of scenes filmed in Sandomierz. In the city we’ve found some references to serial – you’ll find here accommodation in the House of the Father Matthew in example (nothing but the name there is no reference to the series), we find souvenirs, postcards with the image of actors.
During the walk we visited the “Needle’s Eye”, which is the old Dominican gate. It is the only wicket ramparts preserved in Sandomierz. Through the gate Dominican brothers communicated with each other between monasteries. One of these monasteries was in the middle of the city, and the other beyond its borders.
Under the Old Town is a network of underground tunnels (interconnected basements). There’s also well-organized tourist route. Walking tour of the underground is possible only with a guide, it is payable and entry is at certain times.
Underground near Sandomierz city was created for a simple reason – the city was surrounded by walls, and all residents had no other possibility of building warehouses due to lack of space on the surface. Just as in Chelm cellars were built by residents without any major plans, it exist under the buildings, squares, streets, and their depth reached up to 15 meters. According to the history of the underground near Sandomierz they were used during the third invasion of the Tatars of the city (in 1287 year). At that time, Halina Krępnianka decides to devote his life to luring the enemy into the underground corridors and defending the city this way. When the enemy army at the instigation of Halina tried to get through the tunnels to the city center avoiding the walls, the residents of the city flooded the entrance by stones and the enemy was defeated. Halina reportedly speaks the words “wicked enemy, you are thinking that I betray hometown! I am dyingfor this city in the dungeon! ”
Over the years, the underground began to pose a threat to the existing surface buildings and streets. In the 60s there was carried out a thorough safety workings of loess and sealing of threatening security. But they left part of the basement to create an attractive excursion route with a length of 450m and depth of 12m. Underground tour begins at the Oleśnicka street and finish in cellars of Town Hall. Worth a walk to the underground.
We’re liked Sandomierz. Unfortunately we met some traffic jam when we was trying to drive away from city. There are organized weekly market which attracts traders from all over the area. You can, for the stock market to buy everything cheaper than in stores, and it is a very popular form of exchange of goods. Unfortunately, the road infrastructure is not prepared for this.
Near the route in the city we’ve found Browarny camping. This can be an interesting place to stop for the night if you don’t care about the noise from the road located right next to that place.
In the area of Sandomierz, and even more Tarnobrzeg, we found interesting tourist destination. This artificial lake, which was created as a result of flooding of opencast sulfur mine. Mine open pit with a depth of up to 110m was flooded with water from the Vistula river. Mine closed in 1994, was prepared for flooding by protecting the edges. It lasted for 15 years and until 2009 was quenched with water. Tarnobrzeg gained a water reservoir, which is located at the beach and which is commonly used for water sports activities. The surface of the lake is 455ha, and depth reaches up to 42 meters. They routed around the bike paths. It’s beautifully there.