Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Lakes
Poznań
Lake Rusałka (roughly "roo-SOW-kah") is a wooded reservoir on the western edge of central Poznań, about 4 km from the Old Market Square. Locals come here to swim in summer and to walk, run and cycle the lakeshore loop the rest of the year.…
Lakes
Ślesin
Lake Ślesin has a feature most Polish lakes lack: in summer its water is on average 4–6 °C warmer. This is due to the nearby power stations in Konin and Pątnów, for which the lake is part of the cooling circuit. Warm water, a long glacial…
Lakes
Stęszewko
Lake Stęszewskie near Tuczno and Stęszewko is a long, narrow ribbon lake with high, wooded shores – the largest body of water in the Zielonka Forest Landscape Park. It lies in the municipality of Pobiedziska, about 20 km north-east of Pozn…
Lakes
Poznań
Lake Strzeszyńskie, known to locals as Strzeszynek, is a glacial lake on the north-western edge of Poznań, about 10 km from the centre. It is ringed by woodland, has a municipal bathing beach in summer, and can be walked around on forest p…
Lakes
Gniezno
Lake Winiary, known to locals simply as "Łazienki" (the Baths), is the largest body of water in Gniezno. It lies north-east of the city centre, between the Tysiąclecia and Winiary housing estates, and in summer serves as the town beach. A…
Lakes
Zielonka
Lake Zielonka lies right in the middle of Puszcza Zielonka Landscape Park, in a large forest clearing around the village of the same name. A nature trail called "Plant Communities around Lake Zielonka" loops round the water, and in a singl…
Viewpoints
Owińska
The Owińska footbridge (Owińska is pronounced roughly "oh-VEEN-skah") is a striking cable-stayed pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Warta River just north of Poznań, in western Poland. Opened in 2023, it has a viewing tower built into it…
Nature
Poznań
In late winter the slopes of the former palace park in Radojewo, on the northern edge of Poznań, turn yellow with winter aconites – plants that once escaped here from the palace garden. A few weeks later the woodland floor turns purple and…
Churches & monasteries
Poznań
The Franciscan Church in Poznań, officially the Church of St. Anthony of Padua with its Conventual Franciscan friary, stands on Franciszkańska Street at the foot of Przemysł Hill, a two-minute walk from the Old Market Square. Behind its mo…
Churches & monasteries
Poznań
In Krzesiny, on the south-eastern edge of Poznań, stands a church that looks as if it had been shipped in from northern Norway. The steep roofs, dark weatherboarding and intricate little tower are not Scandinavian, though: the building was…
Churches & monasteries
Kicin
From 1564 to 1574 the titular parish priest of Kicin was Jan Kochanowski, Poland's great Renaissance poet, then a canon of Poznań. Today's wooden church was built two centuries later, in 1749–1751, on a medieval hillfort just beyond Poznań…
Churches & monasteries
Długa Goślina
St Mary Magdalene's Church in Długa Goślina is a wooden church from the early 17th century on the northern edge of the Zielonka Forest, in the municipality of Murowana Goślina. It belongs to the trail of wooden churches around the Zielonka…
Churches & monasteries
Uzarzewo
In 2001, while the tower of Uzarzewo church was being repaired, workers found a sealed bottle inside the copper ball beneath the cross: a letter to future generations, written on 12 August 1868 by the village schoolteacher. That is not thi…
Churches & monasteries
Wierzenica
St. Nicholas Church in Wierzenica (say "vyeh-zheh-NEE-tsah") is the oldest church on the Trail of Wooden Churches around Zielonka Forest, a short drive from Poznań in western Poland. This log-built village church, with a shingled roof and…
Monuments & mounds
Ślesin
On the road to Sompolno in Ślesin stands a Neoclassical triumphal arch that locals call Napoleon's Gate. It was built in 1811 (some sources say 1812) in honour of the French emperor, who had passed through Ślesin four years earlier. The Po…
Zoos
Leszno
The Leszno Mini Zoo is a small, free zoological garden in Millennium Park on 17 Stycznia Street, with a domestic animal enclosure and paddocks tucked among old trees. The history of Leszno's menageries goes back to 1903, and the zoo has oc…
Other
Pyzdry
In Pyzdry, an ordinary flight of town steps leads from the hill with the former Franciscan friary down to the marina on the Warta – except that the risers are covered in a colourful mosaic made of more than 50,000 pieces. Around 50 steps o…
Other
Poznań
On the blank wall of a corner house on Rynek Śródecki stands a little street that isn't really there: a green cottage with a butcher in the doorway, a trumpeter perched on a red roof and a black cat creeping along the ridge. The three-dime…
Other
Pyzdry
On the wall of the sports hall in Pyzdry a priest hovers in mid-air with a hole in his belly. He is Mikołaj, parish priest of Biechowo, struck by a stone ball during the siege of Pyzdry in 1383 – the first documented use of gunpowder artil…
Other
Pyzdry
On a concrete fence by the marina in Pyzdry, men are still bathing in the Warta, washerwomen are rinsing laundry, and a group of women is crossing a bridge that disappeared long ago. This large-format mural from 2021 turns old photographs…
Historic sites
Luboń
The Nazis called it the "camp of bloody revenge". Some 40,000 prisoners passed through the German penal and interrogation camp at Żabikowo, which operated from 1943 to 1945 on the edge of today's Luboń, just outside Poznań. Since 1979 the…
Landscape parks
Policko
Warta Landscape Park (Nadwarciański Park Krajobrazowy) is one of the best places in western Poland for birdwatching, a broad floodplain of the Warta River between the small towns of Pyzdry and Ląd (pronounced "lont"). There is no ticket ga…
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…