Town Hall Tower (Baszta) in Żnin

In the middle of Plac Wolności in Żnin stands a massive Gothic tower that everyone calls the Baszta, or bastion – although it was never part of the town walls. It is the only surviving piece of the medieval town hall, built so that the town's privileges, books and records could be kept safe from fire inside brick walls. Today it is a branch of the Museum of the Pałuki Region, with an armoury, council chamber and treasury recreated floor by floor and a historic clock mechanism still working in the attic.

History: the tower that outlived the town hall

Construction followed the great fire of Żnin in 1447, recorded by the chronicler Jan Długosz. On the marshy ground, massive boulders had to serve as foundations, and the cellar was built shallow, partly above ground – it was used as the town wine cellar. Work dragged on because of further fires and plagues; the tower was probably finished around 1494 (other accounts speak more generally of 1447–1500). It originally ended in a crenellated lookout platform from which watchmen scanned the town for fires and danger.

Clerks worked in a timber town-hall building on the north side, linked to the tower by a gallery at first-floor level. That part most likely burned in 1656 during the Swedish invasion – some sources add that a fire in 1692 finished the damage. During rebuilding the tower lost one storey and gained a tented roof with a Baroque cupola. In 1755 a clock funded by the mayor Zenon Konwerski was installed. From 1865 the tower housed a fire station (the ground-floor vault was destroyed when it was fitted out), and after renovation in 1960–1961 the regional museum moved in.

What to see

The tower rises on a square plan that turns into an octagon from the first floor up, the transition hidden behind stepped arches. Friezes, including one of bricks laid diagonally, separate the storeys, and a round blind window marks the third level. The exhibition runs from bottom to top:

• ground floor – armoury with old weapons such as a halberd and a war flail, plus a replica cannon,
• first floor – finds from the market-square renovation: 15th–16th-century pottery and part of a water pipe from 1528,
• second floor – the council bench room, where councillors met and settled minor court cases,
• third floor – a reconstructed town treasury with scales,
• attic – the clock mechanism.

Interesting facts

The cellars preserve traces of a medieval hypocaust heating system: a hearth from which channels in the walls carried warm air to the upper floors. The north wall has no windows because the timber town hall once stood against it; inside, on the first floor, you can see the niche of the doorway to the gallery. Stone cannonballs, a reminder of the Swedes, are set into the walls. Local legend tells of two underground passages – to a monastery or the parish church, and out beyond the walls to Lake Małe – but ground-penetrating radar in 2009 and excavations in 2011 found no trace of them.

Tripto tip

The museum publishes tower opening hours for May–September: Tuesday–Friday 8:00–16:00 (ticket office until 15:30), Saturday–Sunday 10:00–15:00 (ticket office until 14:30). Outside the season, phone ahead: +48 52 30 20 293. There is no separate price list for the tower; at the main museum building on Plac Wolności 1 a ticket costs PLN 12 (PLN 10 reduced). Allow 30–45 minutes, and note that the stairs inside are narrow and steep. The visit combines easily with a ride on the Żnin narrow-gauge railway to Wenecja, home to the Narrow-Gauge Railway Museum.