General Dezydery Chłapowski Landscape Park

This park protects not a forest or a mountain but farmland, or more precisely a network of tree belts between the fields. General Dezydery Chłapowski began planting them almost 200 years ago. The result, between Kościan and Śrem, is an agricultural landscape rarely found in Europe: a mosaic of fields, avenues, ponds and manor parks. The park was created in 1992 and covers 17,323 ha.

History: a general who worked as a farmhand

Dezydery Chłapowski was born in Turew in 1788. He served as an orderly officer to Napoleon and was made a baron of the French Empire, and later fought in the November Uprising of 1830 against Russia. After the wars he bought Turew and Rąbiń from his indebted father. In 1818–1819 he went to England and spent a year doing manual work on a farm to learn modern agriculture. Back home he replaced the old three-field system with crop rotation and introduced the iron plough and clover. Within 15 years he had paid off the debts. For his part in the uprising he spent a year in the fortress at Szczecin, where he wrote a handbook called On Agriculture.

His most lasting legacy is the shelterbelts of trees between the fields. They protect crops from wind, reduce erosion and give wildlife a home. For several decades the area has been studied by scientists from the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute for Agricultural and Forest Environment. The general died in 1879 and is buried by the church in Rąbiń.

What to see

Fields cover about 65% of the park and forests 14.7%; the largest woodland is the Rąbiń Forest. Around 270 plant species and 43 butterfly species have been recorded here. Beavers, otters, elk and fallow deer also live in the park.

• Turew palace and park, the Chłapowski family seat, with a 1 km educational trail (16 stops).
• The avenue of ancient limes in Racot, known as the Jabłonowski Avenue, and the Racot palace.
• Kopaszewo, with a Neoclassical palace and an avenue of plane trees more than a century old. The poet Adam Mickiewicz stayed here in 1831.
• The general's grave by the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Rąbiń.
• The Turew distillery, which the park authority says has been working without a break for more than 100 years.
• A larch-wood chapel in the Zakopane Style in the Rąbiń Forest, dating from the early 20th century.

Interesting facts

The park authority points out that the avenues are also a refuge for the ortolan bunting, a small bird that is rapidly disappearing in Europe. According to an anecdote, its song inspired the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The park also has a Way of the Cross about 16 km long, with metal reliefs, leading from Kopaszewo to the church in Rąbiń. The stations were cast after the death in 1853 of Zofia née Chłapowska, wife of Jan Koźmian, and the park authority describes the route as a memorial to their remarkable love story.

Tripto tip

The park authority has marked 4 hiking trails, 10 cycling routes, 3 educational trails and 2 riding trails. Start with the trail in Turew (1 km). The longer ecological trail Rogaczewo Małe – Rogaczewo Wielkie – Rąbiń – Turew is 12 km. For cyclists, the authority recommends a 28.5 km loop from Racot via Darnowo, Rąbiń, Turew and Stary Gołębin. The best time is May, when the hawthorns flower near Rąbiń, and June, when the black locusts bloom along the Chłapowski Route and the limes in Racot hum with bees. The avenues give shade, but there are open fields between them, so bring water and keep off the crops. The Krzywiń rail-trolley line makes a fun extra.