Breslau

Breslau sits on the east bank of the Grand River, across the water from Kitchener, where a ford once crossed the river. Most of its homes are new, and new streets with young trees and front porches spread out from the older village core along Woolwich Street. The Breslau Mennonite Church and its pioneer cemetery date back to 1834. Farm fields still reach the edge of the village on the north and east sides, and the Region of Waterloo International Airport lies just to the south. On summer afternoons the Grand Splash pad at the community centre is busy and bright, and the library sits under the same roof.

The first settlers arrived in 1806, mostly Mennonites from Pennsylvania. Joseph Erb built a dam, a sawmill and a grist mill in 1850 and laid out the village in 1857. It was named after Breslau, then a Prussian city and today Wrocław in Poland. The population grew by about a third between 2016 and 2021, to 5,053.

The 2021 census counted about 1,585 homes in Breslau. About four in five are single detached houses, and row houses make up about one in seven. More than four in five homes were built in 2006 or later, about a third of them between 2006 and 2010 and the rest since 2011. About one in ten were built before 1981.

Highway 7 runs through Breslau toward Kitchener and Guelph, and Regional Road 17 meets it in the village. Downtown Kitchener is about 7 km away in a straight line, and Uptown Waterloo about 9 km. Fountain Street leads south to Highway 401, about 8 km away. The Region of Waterloo International Airport, south of the village, has scheduled flights.

The Breslau Community Centre at 100 Andover Drive holds the Breslau branch of the Region of Waterloo Library and the Grand Splash pad. Breslau Memorial Park on Joseph Street and Hopewell Park on Ravenswood Road are township parks. The Grand River runs along the west side of the village, and Kitchener's shops and services are just across the river.

• Breslau Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for the village, on Joseph Street, with French immersion from Grade 2 to Grade 8.
• Grand River Collegiate Institute — Grades 9 to 12. The public secondary school, in east Kitchener, with extended French.
• St. Boniface Catholic School — JK to Grade 8. The Catholic elementary school, on Starlight Avenue in Breslau.
• St. David Catholic Secondary School — Grades 9 to 12. The Catholic secondary school for St. Boniface's family of schools, in Waterloo, about 9 km away.