Giecz on the Moskawa river is one of the oldest and most important strongholds of the early Piast state – some researchers even see it as the dynasty's ancestral seat. Today the site known as Grodziszczko is home to the Archaeological Rese…
Gołuchów Lake, also called the reservoir, is a dam reservoir on the Trzemna river, surrounded by forest in the south of Greater Poland. It was built in 1969–1971 on land belonging to the villages of Gołuchów and Czerminek, about 15 km nort…
Lake Góreckie (Jezioro Góreckie, say "yeh-ZHOR-oh goo-RETS-kyeh") is the best-known lake in Wielkopolski National Park, about 15 km south of Poznań in western Poland. Long, L-shaped and ringed by steep wooded banks, it holds two small isla…
Gniezno Cathedral reflected in the still water of Lake Jelonek is a view that 19th-century artists were already drawing: a lithograph of Gniezno seen from the lakeshore was made after a drawing by Napoleon Orda, and in 1865 Stanisław Łukom…
Lake Kamińskie by the village of Kamińsko is a forest ribbon lake in the Zielonka Forest Landscape Park, in the municipality of Murowana Goślina. In summer it draws visitors with a bathing area on the official list for the 2026 season; out…
Lake Kierskie (roughly "KYER-skyeh"), usually just called Kiekrz ("kyeksh") by locals, is the largest body of water in Poznań and one of the biggest lakes in the Wielkopolska region. This long glacial lake on the city's western edge is Poz…
Lake Kórnik is a narrow ribbon lake in the heart of Kórnik, part of the glacial Kórnik–Zaniemyśl Channel. It covers nearly 92 ha and is up to 6 m deep, and along its eastern shore runs a promenade of about 3 km leading to the castle, the a…
Lake Malta in Poznań (Jezioro Maltańskie, yeh-ZHOH-roh mal-TAHN-skyeh; locals just say "Malta") is a man-made lake on the Cybina River and the city's favorite outdoor playground. A roughly 5.6 km loop path circles the water, and around it…
South of Ślesin stretches the long, narrow ribbon of Lake Mikorzyn (Jezioro Mikorzyńskie). It is the deepest of the Konin lakes and in summer one of the warmest: water from the nearby power stations keeps the temperature often around 25 °C…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Before Kalisz moved to the right bank of the Prosna, its heart was a fortress on a marshy island in Zawodzie. The stronghold, built in the 860s, was one of the key centres of the early Piast state, Poland's first ruling dynasty, and in the…
The lake that people in Piła call Płotki is officially named Płocie – the popular name comes from the holiday centre on its shore. At its eastern end there is a lifeguarded bathing area with a sandy beach of almost 10,000 m², while on the…
St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kalisz (pronounced roughly "KAH-leesh") is the oldest church in one of Poland's oldest towns: a red-brick Gothic building founded in the 13th century and, since 1992, the cathedral of the Diocese of Kalisz. Behind…
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…
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…
For many Poznań residents, the narrow-gauge train along Lake Malta is a first childhood memory – and its story is older than the lake's leisure park itself. Maltanka started in 1956 as a children's railway in the Dębina district and moved…
The outer wall of the former Protestant church in Zduny still bears marks of German gunfire from the first day of the Second World War – at the time the little town lay right on the border. The church itself is a century and a half older:…
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…
In the side aisle of the Franciscan church, in the former oratory of the Poor Clare nuns, lie the remains of Blessed Jolenta (Yolanda) – a Hungarian princess, sister of St Kinga and grandmother of King Casimir the Great. Kings Sigismund th…