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"He stopped the sun and moved the Earth"
 Situated
in the heart of Europe, there is Poland, a country with beautiful
seashores on the North, thousands of lakes in the middle and
picturesque landscape of mountains on the South. A long long time ago, when Poland was ruled by the kings, in the city of Torun on the Vistula River a baby boy named Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik) was born.
Nicolaus was a smart kid, always curious of the world . When he was ten years old, Paul van de Volder, a Dutch astrologer, visited his house and foretold him a brilliant future. The young boy begun to take interest in the stars hoping to find out more about his future and the secrets of the sky .
When we are children the world is full of secrets that we wish to discover. But when we grow out we forget them. Nicolaus did not forget, he did not abandon his childhood dream on becoming the adult.
 
All of these things were happening at a time of Renaissance
when astronomy was a magical science mixed with astrology, when the
alchemists were seeking the Philosopher's Stone trying to find the
secret of everlasting life . It was an extraoridnary era of great
discoveries and growth of Europe without any boundaries.
Nicolaus started to study at the oldest Polish University of Krakow established by the Polish King Casimir III the Great. This Academy was
then famous for its mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy curriculum.
Searching and doubts led him to a great discovery, for which Nicolaus
Copernicus is known world wide because he changed forever our way of
perceiving our position in the Universe.
Nicolaus discovered that our planet moves round the Sun and it is a ball shape .
Until then people thought the Earth was flat and it was a center of the entire Universe. Nothing was the same ever after the Copernicus’s revolutionary discovery. “He stopped the Sun and moved the Earth” -we used to say in Poland about this man from Torun, who was brave enough to follow his dream, trust his intellect and defend his beliefs.
The story of Nicolaus Copernicus was told in “The Copernicus’s Star” – an animated feature film for children produced by Bielsko-Biala Animated Film Studio in Poland (www.sfr.com.pl ), which was released just a month ago in Torun, Poland. The images at this website are the frames of the film.
Nicolaus Copernicus painted by Jan Matejko
Poland is one of the largest and oldest countries in European Union. Nowadays we can still see the places where Nicolaus Copernicus lived or visited (he traveled extensively). There you can find numerous monuments representing Copernicus. In Poland there are also many planetariums and observatories where the night sky, stars and planets are presenting in the cosmic shows. In no time you can make an inspiring trip through time and the space of universe.
Click on the cities to find out why they have been important places in Nicolaus's life.
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