In our sights was a cosmopolitan municipality whose university produced nine Nobel laureates and a quirky anti-communist resistance movement. A centre for locomotive manufacture, it’s a place where you can get footplate experiences on the last scheduled steam passenger service in the world.

Over the centuries, it has been known by many names, including Breslau and Vratislav. Its abundant appellations are a prism which separates out a microcosm of Poland’s troubled history.

Wrocław is billed not only as the largest city in Western Poland and the capital of Silesia, but one of the oldest and most beautiful.