Former Arthur Greiser Villa in Jeziory

On the shore of Lake Góreckie stands a white palace that now serves nature, though it was built for one of the worst criminals of occupied Greater Poland. Arthur Greiser, the Reich Governor of the Wartheland, built his residence here during the Second World War – prisoners from the camp at Żabikowo were made to work on it. Since the 1990s the building has housed the headquarters of Wielkopolska National Park and its Natural History Museum, and the lake Greiser renamed after his wife once again bears its Polish name.

History: the governor's house

The design came from Estorff & Winkler of Potsdam, a fashionable practice in the 1930s. According to park staff, little of the original furnishings survives, but the room layout does: a stone fireplace with tiles showing the coats of arms of Wartheland towns, an imposing wooden staircase to the upper floor, where Greiser and his wife Maria had their apartments, and a hidden passage between the couple's rooms that concealed safes. There was also a cinema room for propaganda films. The terraces looked out over Lake Góreckie, then called Gurkasee, which Greiser renamed Mariensee. Locals still call the area Greiserówka – as they do the road from Komorniki to Jeziory. Greiser was tried for war crimes and executed in 1949.

After the war the building housed an orphanage and later a tuberculosis preventorium for children. Since 1992 it has been the park's headquarters. Experts have even investigated whether the much-rumoured bunker beneath it actually exists.

The Natural History Museum

The museum in Jeziory opened in May 1998. It continues the tradition of the museum in Puszczykowo, opened on 4 August 1952 – five years before the park was formally established in 1957. It started with 530 exhibits and in 46 years welcomed almost 800,000 visitors. Today the displays fill four rooms on the ground floor:

• Room one – the history of the park and memorabilia of Professor Adam Wodziczko, rocks, minerals and remains of a mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, aurochs and wild horse from a nearby gravel pit.
• Room two – lake ecosystems, aquariums with fish from the park's lakes and a diorama of the "Grabina" strict reserve by Lake Góreckie.
• Room three – a bird collection, including eggs.
• Room four – insects, including a large butterfly collection.

The palace hall is used for temporary exhibitions – one of them presented the history of Poland's national parks. There is also a small shop selling park maps and guidebooks.

Tripto tip

According to the park's website, the museum is open Monday to Friday 8:00–14:00, closed on Saturdays, and open on Sundays only from April to September (11:00–18:00). A standard ticket costs PLN 10, a reduced one PLN 5 (price list from July 2026). Groups of 10–25 can book a guide at least 14 days ahead. An hour is enough for the interior; afterwards walk down to Lake Góreckie and follow part of the park's trails. The palace is a place of remembrance, not a romantic manor – keep that in mind when you look at the fireplace with its coats of arms. Jeziory lies in the municipality of Mosina, in the forests south of Poznań.