Walking tour ”Treblinka and Tykocin” in Poland
The little town of Tykocin looks like a place where time has stood still – the same as it did before World War 2 and much the same as it did in the 18th century.
Architecturally, it`s one of the best preserved examples of an old-style shtetl – an East European market town, inhabited mostly but not exclusively by Jews. The shtetl was the birthplace of a rich and distinctive Jewish culture that described the traditional way of life of Eastern European Jews and was annihilated during World War 2.As a result, very few shtetls survived to this day in their original shape. The best known exception in Poland is Tykocin.
The town`s major tourist attraction is baroque synagogue built in 1642, the second largest in today`s Poland. In 2013 the synagogue of Tykocin was voted one of the “new seven wonders” of Poland, in the third edition of a readers’ contest sponsored by the Polish edition of National Geographic Traveller magazine.
Walking around the town, you can see 18-th and 19-th century wooden houses in original, baroque urban layout. Its grand scale is dominated by monumental church and monastery.
In Tykocin we will have lunch in a restaurant which serves traditional dishes of Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine.
