The oldest restaurant in Europe is still going in the basement of a Polish town hall more than 700 years after first opening
These cavernous underground dining areas are part of the 10-room Piwnica Swidnicka, Europe's oldest restaurant.
Located
in the Main Square of Wroclaw, Poland, the 900-square metre eatery has
been operational since 1273, when the country's stodgy diet was
characterised by spice, beef and beer.
Counting
the composer Frédéric Chopin and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
among its distinguished diners, it was the city's only beer brewery for
several hundred years.
From
the day it opened the restaurant's layout was evolving, until in the
15th century the basement took on the form familiar to tourists today.
The
cellar's vestibule was linked by tunnel to an underground brewery in
1519, when beer barrels would be rolled into the restaurant.
Since then, changes have been merely cosmetic - including in 1904, when the decor was switched to an Art Nouveau style.
Though the city was bombed in 1945, the cellars remained mainly intact.
Sitting
under the basement of Wroclaw Town Hall, the restaurant offers space
for up to 380 guests and still prides itself on offering traditional
Polish dishes.
