Wielkopolska Ethnographic Park in Dziekanowice

This is more than a collection of old farmhouses. The open-air museum in Dziekanowice, on Lake Lednica, was designed to recreate the structure of a traditional Wielkopolska village: farmsteads gathered around a village square, a wooden church, an inn, a smithy, windmills, a manor estate with its farm buildings, orchards, gardens and cultivated fields. Around 60 original buildings were brought here from different parts of the region and arranged to show the differences between a peasant homestead, craft workshops, sacred buildings and a nobleman's estate — the layout itself is one of the most interesting parts of the exhibition.

Plans for a large open-air museum of Wielkopolska's rural heritage were discussed for decades after the Second World War. Dziekanowice was selected in 1974, the spatial concept was approved in 1975, and work began on transferring the first buildings: the arcaded house from Wolica, the inn from Sokołowo Budzyńskie and granaries from Godziesze Wielkie and Mikołajewice. The first stage comprised 26 structures. The park opened to visitors in 1982 and became a branch of the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica in 1993. Later arrivals included the smithy from Skrzetusz, an Olęder farmstead from the Nowy Tomyśl area, the watermill from Wierzenica and the wooden church from Wartkowice.

Pay particular attention to the wooden church from Wartkowice, built in 1719 and transferred with its furnishings, and the 18th-century bell tower beside it. An easy-to-miss detail is a ceiling beam dated 1602 in the house from Zdrój — one of the oldest elements in the museum. Note the clay-walled smithy from Skrzetusz and, as a contrast to the peasant farmsteads, the recreated manor house based on the residence at Studzieniec, with interiors arranged to show manorial life. Don't treat the windmills as photo backdrops — seven of them, of different types (koźlak post mills, smock mills and Dutch mills), were acquired in the museum's first years.

The museum is alive: the Marzanna-burning spring ritual has been held here since 1984, and since 1986 the Żywy Skansen ("Living Open-Air Museum") event has used the historic buildings as a stage for demonstrations of traditional crafts and customs. Since 2013 a hop field of the Polish Marynka variety has been cultivated next to the Olęder farmstead.

In the 2026 season the park is open from 12 April to 31 October (closed Mondays; free admission on Thursdays). Tickets: PLN 25 regular, PLN 17 reduced, PLN 35/20 with an audio guide; children under 7 enter free and parking is free. Allow at least 1.5 hours, comfortably 2–3 hours — or half a day with children or during an event, with games, workshops and museum lessons for families. Start your visit by stepping back and looking at the layout of the whole "village", then combine the museum with nearby Ostrów Lednicki: in one day you get rural Wielkopolska and one of the most important strongholds of the early Piast state.