Great Market Square, Zamosc

The Rynek Wielki is the showpiece of Zamosc and one of the most complete Renaissance squares in Europe. Laid out by the Italian architect Bernardo Morando from around 1580 as the heart of a planned ideal city, it measures a deliberate hundred metres on each side and has kept its proportions and arcades almost unchanged. The whole old town was inscribed by UNESCO in 1992.

Unlike squares that grew piecemeal over centuries, this one was conceived as a single composition, and it survives almost as designed. Standing in the middle and taking in the whole as one planned space is the way to appreciate it. For anyone interested in architecture, Zamosc is a rare chance to see a Renaissance ideal built and still lived in.

The town hall fills the north side, its tower and grand fan staircase added in the eighteenth century, and it remains the square's focal point. Around the arcades, several burgher houses keep richly decorated facades, including a row built by Armenian merchants with carved and painted fronts. The continuous arcades themselves, running around all four sides, are as much the attraction as any single building.

Zamosc was founded in the late sixteenth century by the chancellor Jan Zamoyski as a private town on trade routes linking the Black Sea with northern and western Europe. He hired Morando to design a fortified ideal city from scratch, with the square at its centre. Merchants from many nations settled here, among them Armenians, and their trade shaped the town's wealth and architecture.

The square and the surrounding fortified town can be seen in a couple of hours, which makes Zamosc a comfortable half day. Add time to climb the town hall tower in season, to see the collegiate church and to walk a stretch of the old fortifications that ring the centre.

Late spring to early autumn is the most pleasant, with the cafe tables out under the arcades and long light on the facades. Summer weekends bring the most life to the square, sometimes with markets and events. Early morning is best for photographing the arcades without crowds or parked cars.

Zamosc lies in the far southeast of the country, in the Lublin region. Most visitors arrive by road from Lublin, about an hour and a half to two hours away by bus or car. The old town is closed to most traffic, so leave the car at the edge and walk in to the square.

The square is flat but paved with setts and cobbles that are uneven underfoot, and the arcades have shallow steps in places. The town hall tower is reached by stairs only. The wider old town is compact and walkable, though the fortification walks include rougher ground.

Zamosc combines well with the sights of the Lublin region to the north:

• Lublin, the regional capital, an easy day trip away.
• Lublin Castle, with its Romanesque tower and painted chapel, in the city itself.

It was planned and built in one go in the late sixteenth century to Renaissance principles, with a regular grid, a central square and encircling fortifications. That deliberate, unified design is why it is described as an ideal town and why UNESCO listed it.

It measures about a hundred metres on each side, a deliberate square that Morando set out as the centre of the town. The proportions and the surrounding arcades have survived largely intact.

Yes. Zamosc is about an hour and a half to two hours from Lublin by road, and the square and old town can be seen in a half day, which makes it a straightforward day trip.

If Renaissance and old-town squares are your thing, compare it with Poznan's Old Market Square and the royal seat at Lublin Castle nearby.