Poznań is the city of the first Piast monarchs: the cathedral on Ostrów Tumski holds the tombs of Mieszko I and Bolesław the Brave, while the Renaissance town hall on the Old Market Square is famous for the mechanical billy goats that butt heads at noon every day. Add the trade fair grounds, the Stary Browar arts centre and Rusałka lake — a city made for a cultural weekend.
Museums
Poznań
The Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznań (Muzeum Instrumentów Muzycznych) is a branch of the National Museum housed in historic townhouses at Stary Rynek 45, on the corner of Woźna Street. The museum describes itself as the only institu…
Museums
Poznań
The National Museum in Poznań is one of Poland's leading art museums, and its main building on Plac Wolności houses the Gallery of Painting and Sculpture. It is the place to see Polish painting from Matejko to Malczewski, 20th-century art,…
Museums
Poznań
The Greater Poland Uprising Museum in Poznań occupies the elegant 18th-century Guardhouse (Odwach, say "OD-vahh") in the middle of the Old Market Square, right next to the Town Hall. It tells the story of the 1918–1919 uprising that brough…
Museums
Poznań
The Poznań Museum of Armaments (Muzeum Uzbrojenia) is an open-air collection of tanks, aircraft, helicopters and artillery inside Citadel Park, the site of the old Prussian Fort Winiary, with a small indoor exhibition in a surviving fort b…
Zoos
Poznań
Poznań New Zoo (Nowe Zoo) is a woodland zoo on the eastern edge of central Poznań, opened in 1974 and covering about 120 hectares of hilly forest with six ponds. It is Poland's second-largest zoo by area. Instead of compact cages you get b…
Gardens
Poznań
In western Poznań, in the district that took its name from it – Ogrody, "Gardens" – about 22 hectares of plant collections from around the world spread out. The Adam Mickiewicz University Botanical Garden is both a research institution and…
Old towns & squares
Poznań
Ostrów Tumski (say "OSS-troof TOOM-skee"), Poznań's Cathedral Island, is where the story of Poland began. On this island between the Warta and Cybina rivers stood the stronghold of Mieszko I, the first historical ruler of Poland; here the…
Gardens
Poznań
The Poznań Palm House (Palmiarnia Poznańska, say "pahl-MYAR-nya") in Wilson Park is the largest palm house in Poland and one of the largest in Europe: more than 4,600 m² under glass, about 1,100 plant species and an aquarium with some 170…
Gardens
Poznań
In the Sołacz district, between Wielkopolska Avenue and the Bogdanka valley, lies a park best known for its avenue of silver maples. Adam Wodziczko Park covers more than 7 hectares and has over 2,000 trees of 54 species, and its patron was…
Landscape parks
Poznań
Every day at noon a narrow-gauge steam locomotive in Rataje Park puffs out clouds of smoke and sounds its whistle – though it never leaves. It is the party piece of the Środa County Railway open-air museum, set in the heart of Poznań's sec…
Landscape parks
Poznań
In the 1950s a parachute tower more than 30 m high loomed over the Sołacz ponds – and until 1956 the park was even named after Stalin. It is hard to picture today: Sołacz Park is a calm, English-style landscape park in the Bogdanka valley,…
Nature
Poznań
Where clay was dug for almost a century to make bricks for a growing Poznań, reeds now reflect in still water and terns circle above the ponds. Szachty – or simply Glinianki, "the clay pits" – are around 40 ponds in the Junikowo Stream val…
Landscape parks
Poznań
A park in Poznań's Łazarz district once had a statue of a US president sculpted by Gutzon Borglum – the same artist who carved the presidents' faces into Mount Rushmore. The Germans destroyed the statue, but Wilson Park still tells an inte…
Monuments & mounds
Poznań
The Poznań June 1956 Monument, known locally as the Poznań Crosses (Poznańskie Krzyże), stands on Adam Mickiewicz Square in the city's Imperial District, next to the Imperial Castle. Two joined steel crosses, 19.5 m and 21 m tall and bound…
Landmarks
Poznań
Poznań Town Hall (Ratusz, say "RAH-toosh") on the Old Market Square is one of the finest Renaissance town halls in Central Europe and the symbol of the city. Every day at noon two mechanical billy goats pop out above the clock and butt hea…
Museums
Poznań
Ulica ks. Posadzego on Poznań's Ostrów Tumski runs along the crest of a stronghold rampart from the time of Mieszko I, Poland's first historical ruler: its structure begins about a metre below the cobbles and reaches almost six metres down…
Nature
Poznań
Between the housing blocks of Piątkowo and the new estates of Naramowice lies the small Piątkowo Wood, and inside it one of the smallest nature reserves in Poznań. Żurawiniec covers just 1.67 ha and protects a peat bog in a glacial trough.…
Museums
Poznań
The Croissant Museum in Poznań (Rogalowe Muzeum Poznania, roughly "ro-GAH-lo-veh moo-ZEH-oom") is a lively, hands-on show rather than a museum of display cases. Right on the Old Market Square, costumed hosts teach you how Poznań's famous S…
Zoos
Poznań
Poznań's zoo began as a birthday joke. In 1871 the regulars of a restaurant by the railway station, members of a skittles club, decided to celebrate their president's fiftieth birthday by giving him… animals. From a goat, a sheep, a peacoc…
Technical monuments
Poznań
Stary Browar ("STAH-ri BRO-var," the Old Brewery) in Poznań is a shopping, arts and business center at Półwiejska 42, built inside the red-brick halls of the 19th-century Hugger brewery. Its "50:50" concept, half business and half art, tur…
Old towns & squares
Poznań
Poznań's Old Market Square (Stary Rynek, say "STAH-ri RIN-ek") is the historic heart of one of Poland's oldest cities and among the most colorful squares in Central Europe. A Renaissance town hall with mechanical goats, a row of painted me…
Thermal baths & water parks
Poznań
Termy Maltańskie in Poznań (roughly TER-mih mahl-TAHN-skyeh, POZ-nahn) is one of Poland's largest swimming complexes: a water park, a sauna area and Olympic-standard sports pools on the north shore of Lake Malta. Some pools are fed with ge…
Greater Poland
Poznań
The Wartostrada is a network of paved walking and cycling paths along both banks of the Warta River, letting you cross Poznań by the water, away from the streets. The whole route along the Warta and Cybina rivers is about 14 km long and ru…
Viewpoints
Poznań
On the border of Świerczewo and Fabianowo-Kotowo, above former clay pits in the Junikowo Stream valley, stands a 25-metre steel observation tower. Its deck is the best place to see how large Szachty park is: a patchwork of about 40 ponds,…