Wrocław & the Guitar Masters Competition: a guitarist's travel guide
Guitar Masters International Competition · Wrocław, Poland
Wrocław, the beautiful city of a hundred bridges in Poland's southwest, hosts one of Central Europe's biggest guitar events in Guitar Masters. Run by the city's guitar society, it pairs an unusually generous competition with a festival of star recitals, and the market square around which it all happens is one of the loveliest in Europe.
Getting there
Wrocław is reached by express train from Warsaw in around three and a half hours and from Berlin in about four, and its airport (WRO) offers direct European flights. The compact centre is walkable once you arrive.
Compare trains, buses & flights to Wrocław on Omio →
Where to stay
Stay on or near the vast Rynek, the market square, and you are in the middle of everything, from concert halls to cafés. Wrocław is affordable and made for wandering, so a central base is easy to justify.
An interactive map of hotels, apartments and B&Bs across Booking, Expedia, Airbnb and more, centred on Wrocław.
See stays in Wrocław →What you'll hear
Guitar Masters runs both a classical and a fingerstyle competition, narrowing through rounds to finals at the city's concert halls, all wrapped in a festival of headline recitals across many styles. Its classical prizewinners, among them Andrea De Vitis and Tengyue Zhang, are familiar from the wider circuit. The scale of the prizes and the star line-up give it real pull.
If you play as well as listen, explore Alexandre Tansman, the Polish composer Segovia championed on Sheet Music Plus →
Where to eat
Lower Silesian cooking is hearty and warming: żurek, the sour rye soup served in a bread bowl, bigos, the hunter's stew of cabbage and meat, and pierogi in every filling. Look out for the local baked flatbread from the market stalls.
While you're there
The vast Książ Castle near Wałbrzych, with its wartime tunnels, makes a dramatic day trip, often paired with the UNESCO-listed timber Church of Peace at Świdnica. Hunt for the city's little bronze dwarf statues while you are in town. A rental car makes the day trips simple, and GetYourGuide lists guided tours and tickets across the region.
Enter the pieces you play, and GuitarComp shows how your programme maps to this competition's rounds and which other events you qualify for.
See full competition details →Competition dates, deadlines and the current compulsory work change each edition, so always confirm at the official site: guitarmasters.pl.