Believe it or not, Gorlice boasts one of the most beautiful secondary education buildings in all of Poland. Designed in Neo-Renaissance style by Tadeusz Mostowski, and completed in 1914, this grand institution features large busts of famous Polish rulers who were committed to education all along the edge of the roof on all sides - namely, Kazimierz the Great, Queen Jadwiga and Władysław Jagiełłó. A huge bust of Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz also sits above the entrance.
Kromer High School as it looked upon completion in 1914.
Symbolic of Gorlice's golden days before WWI, this building wasn't even fully open yet when the war broke out. In fact, school was in session here for just three weeks before it was commandeered by Austrian troops for a military hospital, thus putting a halt to its first academic year. The school/hospital was then passed back and forth between the Austrians and Russians before it was partially destroyed during the Battle of Gorlice in May 1915. Rebuilt soon after, the building has been a public high school since the PRL era, and was recently the subject of a thorough renovation. The school is named after Marcin Kromer, a 16th century Polish cartographer, historian, diplomat and personal secretery to two kings - Sigismund I and Sigismund II - who was born nearby in Biecz.
