Wroclaw has had a colourful history since it was founded 1200 years ago on the island of Ostrow Tumski by the Slavic Slezan tribe. It is on this historic island that CVHI 2009 will be taking place, though Ostrow Tumski is no longer an island, as one arm of the river Odra was filled in 1810.

Wroclaw is an attractive city with a large market square dating from the thirteenth century and a number of islands or semi-islands in the branches of the river Oder.  It is situated about 290 kilometres southwest of Warsaw and has good rail and air links.  

The name Wroclaw is thought to have originiated with the Czech leader Wrocislaw. Wroclaw first became part of Poland in 990 CE, when it was incorporated into the region of Silesia by Prince Mieszko I, having been part of Czech territory.

In 1000 Wroclaw became an episcopal city and the religious centre of Silesia. It continued to grow over the next two centuries, with an economy based on trade and crafts, but was razed to the ground in 1241 by the Tatars. It was then rebuilt round a large market square, which still exists, and was soon enjoying a revival.

In 1363 the Duchy of Silesia, including Wroclaw, was annexed by Bohemia and did not return to Poland for another 600 years. Wroclaw, now often called Prezzla, continued to flourish under Bohemian rule and was admitted to the Hanseactic League in 1387, a bit like a medieval version of the G8. In the sixteenth century Wroclaw came under Austrian rule when Bohemia elected the Austrian Habsburg Duke Ferdinand as king.

In the early seventeenth century the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) and plague halved the city population, but an economic and cultural revival followed the end of the war. In 1741 Wroclaw came under Prussian rule when Frederick II took over Lower Silesia and officially acquired the name Breslau (or Prezzla), which had been used for several centuries by its large German population. By the end of the nineteenth century it was the largest Prussian city after Berlin and Hamburg and was beginning to be heavily industrialised. When the Nazis seized power in 1933 the remaining 20,000 Poles (and Jews) were asked to leave.

Wroclaw, now called Breslau, was the last town to surrender to the Soviet union after a 14-week siege on May 6 1945. Wroclaw was given back to Poland at the end of the second world war, the German residents were expelled and the city was repopulated by Poles from Lwow (the Ukranian town of Lviv), Wilno (the Lithuanian town of Vilnius), as well as settlers from Warsaw and Poznan.

The city has been rebuilt over the last sixty years and is again an important academic, cultural centre and with nine universities and nearly 90,000 students. It is the fourth largest city in Poland with a population of about 640,000.  The restored buildings include the 14-16th century Gothic city hall and the 12-15th cathedral of St John the Baptist.