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 durin…
In the 14th century Poznań was one of the most heavily fortified towns in Poland: a brick wall about 1.7 km long and up to 11 metres high, reinforced by around 35 towers spaced every 35–45 metres. Only fragments survive, but they make a go…
From the road along the Warta you first see two openwork towers and a huge dome – the Baroque crown of an abbey that in the 18th century was considered the oldest Cistercian monastery in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Behind this faça…
In 1806 Napoleon arrived at the Cistercian convent in Owińska – and, according to legend and literature, an attempt on his life was made right here. Eight kilometres from Poznań's city limits stands a Baroque complex with the twin-towered…
The Szklarka Valley is a wooded corner of eastern Poznań right next to the New Zoo, where a stream flows towards the Cybina River and Lake Malta. The valley's best-known feature was the timber treetop walk – but since 31 December 2025 the…
On the market square in Pyzdry, among brick town houses, stands a wooden house with an arcaded porch resting on four posts. It was built in 1768 and is the oldest surviving residential building in this former royal town on the Warta. Today…
The little wooden church on ul. Więźniów Politycznych looks more like an Orthodox church than a typical church in Greater Poland: it is built on a Greek-cross plan, with an octagonal dome and bell turret rising over the centre. The town's…
On a small mound in Buk, where a fortified settlement may have stood before the town was founded, the larch-wood Holy Cross Church has stood since 1760 – a rare example of a timber church on a Greek-cross plan, with four equal arms and a f…
The larch-wood Church of St Andrew the Apostle in Nowa Wieś Królewska was built around 1550–1580, in the reign of King Sigismund Augustus, and is one of the oldest wooden churches in Greater Poland (Wielkopolska). It was most likely paid f…
In the middle of the market square in Sulmierzyce stands a white, plastered building with a shingle roof and a turret whose weather vane bears the date 1743. Beneath the plaster are log walls: this is the only fully preserved wooden town h…
In the late 18th century, 24 windmills were turning in Rydzyna. Today just one remains: a wooden post mill named "Józef", standing on Młyńska Góra (Mill Hill) on Wyspiańskiego Street, among the houses of a residential estate. It is the onl…
The Gniezno Doors are a pair of Romanesque bronze doors inside Gniezno Cathedral and one of the most important medieval artworks in Central Europe. Cast in the late 12th century, they tell the life and martyrdom of St. Adalbert in eighteen…
Koszuty Manor (Dwór w Koszutach; say "ko-SHOO-tih"), near Środa Wielkopolska in western Poland, is one of the finest surviving timber manor houses of the Polish gentry. Built of larch around 1760, with corner pavilions and a broken roof, i…
Maria Dąbrowska, author of "Nights and Days", was born in this manor house near Kalisz in 1889 and spent her childhood and youth here until 1907. The house never belonged to her family – her father, Józef Szumski, managed the estate. Since…
This small pavilion next to Poznań Główny station was built for Emperor Wilhelm II, yet it went down in history thanks to someone else entirely. On 26 December 1918 crowds gathered here to welcome the pianist and statesman Ignacy Jan Pader…
Dziewicza Góra (roughly "dzhyeh-VEE-chah GOO-rah," meaning "Maiden's Hill") is the highest point of the Puszcza Zielonka forest near Poznań, rising to 144.9 m (475 ft) in the Czerwonak municipality, about 10 km northeast of the city center…
The coach house, stable, barn, henhouse, granary and storehouse from the set of Andrzej Wajda's "Pan Tadeusz" did not end up on a scrapheap after filming. Built by highland carpenters, they were moved from the set near Józefów outside Wars…
On the market square of Pobiedziska, halfway between Poznań and Gniezno, three legendary brothers rest on a large boulder in the middle of a round basin. The Lech, Czech and Rus Fountain is a small monument with bronze figures — one standi…
Above the gate of Fort VII on Polska Street in Poznań hangs the sign "Konzentrationslager Posen". This is not a military attraction but a place of remembrance: in 1939–1944 the Germans ran a camp here that they themselves called the "camp…
On the east wall of the largest room, where an altar would stand in a church, hangs "The Maid of Orleans" – Jan Matejko's largest painting. That was the plan of Edward Aleksander Raczyński, who in 1910 gave his collection its own publicly…
Glinianki are flooded former clay pits on the slopes of Osowa Góra in Mosina, in the Pożegowo district. Where clay was hauled to the brickworks for decades, there is now a quiet, green bathing spot with a sandy beach right on the edge of W…
The Gniezno Narrow-Gauge Railway is one of the oldest small railways in Greater Poland – its history began in 1884. The former network linked Gniezno with Witkowo, Powidz and Anastazewo; today trains run seasonally only on a short section…
The Golgotha in Licheń Stary (pronounced roughly "LEE-hen STAH-ri") is an artificial hill of fieldstones and concrete inside the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Licheń, one of Poland's most visited Catholic pilgrimage sites. A winding path leads…
Gród Pobiedziska (roughly "groot poh-byeh-JEE-skah"; "gród" means a fortified settlement) is a reconstructed early medieval stronghold and family history park in western Poland, halfway between Poznań and Gniezno. Behind its timber palisad…