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Poznań is the capital of Greater Poland in western Poland, a city on the Warta River and the country's fifth-largest, and it is famous for its colourful Renaissance Old Market Square, the mechanical goats of its town hall and Poland's oldest cathedral on Ostrów Tumski.
The island of Ostrów Tumski was one of the main seats of the first Polish rulers in the 10th century, and the town on the left bank of the Warta received its charter in 1253. Under Prussian and German rule as Posen, the city gained grand buildings such as the Imperial Castle, before returning to Poland in 1918, and today it is a busy centre of trade fairs and universities.
Visitors come for the Old Market Square and its town hall, the Baroque Fara church and the croissant museum, the cathedral and Porta Posnania on Cathedral Island, the Imperial Castle and Raczyński Library, and walks around Lake Malta. Local customs include St. Martin's croissants and St. John's Fair.
The Old Market Square in Poznań is the centre and oldest part of the Old Town, laid out after the city charter of 1253 and the third largest market square in Poland. Rows of narrow, brightly painted merchants' houses surround a central block with the Renaissance town hall, fountains and museums.
Poznań Town Hall stands in the middle of the Old Market Square and was rebuilt in its present Mannerist form with an ornate loggia by Giovanni Battista di Quadro in 1550 to 1560. Each day at noon two mechanical goats butt heads above its clock, and inside is the Museum of the History of Poznań.
Poznań Fara, the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, is a Baroque church in the Old Town of Poznań built between 1651 and 1701. One of the most recognisable landmarks of the city and among the finest Baroque buildings in Poland, it has a rich interior of columns, stucco and painted altars.
The Poznań Croissant Museum, at 41 Old Market Square in Poznań, is an interactive museum of St. Martin's croissants, a local pastry with a tradition of about 150 years. During its shows visitors learn to make the croissant to the original recipe and hear about the local dialect and the goats.
Ostrów Tumski is an island between two branches of the Warta in Poznań and the oldest part of the city, where the rulers of the early Polish state had a palace in the 10th century. Its centre is filled by the cathedral and other church buildings, and it is listed as a Historic Monument of Poland.
Poznań Cathedral, the Archcathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul on Ostrów Tumski, is the oldest cathedral in Poland and the oldest monument of Poznań, first built in the 10th century. Its Golden Chapel holds the tombs of Mieszko I and Bolesław the Brave, the first rulers of Poland.
Porta Posnania is an interactive heritage centre in Poznań about the history of Ostrów Tumski and the birth of the Polish state, opened in 2014. Its modern concrete building on the Śródka side is joined by a glass footbridge over the Cybina River to a 19th-century fortress lock next to the island.
The Royal Castle in Poznań stands on Przemysł Hill above the Old Town, begun in 1249 by Duke Przemysł I as a brick tower with a well inside. Largely destroyed in the Second World War, it has been partly rebuilt and now houses the Museum of Applied Arts and a viewing tower over the city.
The Imperial Castle in Poznań is a huge Neo-Romanesque palace built in 1910 by Franz Schwechten for the German Emperor Wilhelm II, who added many ideas of his own. Since then it has housed German and Polish offices, and today it is a busy cultural centre known simply as Zamek, the Castle.
The Raczyński Library is a public library in Poznań founded by Count Edward Raczyński, with a Neoclassical building of 1822 to 1828 on Liberty Square. Its long colonnade recalls the east front of the Louvre, and in front stands the Hygieia Fountain made by Albert Wolff in 1841.
The National Museum in Poznań is one of the largest museums in Poland, founded in 1857 as the Museum of Polish and Slavic Antiquities. Its galleries show Polish painting from the 16th century onward together with Italian, Spanish, Dutch and German art, as well as coins and applied arts.
Lake Malta is an artificial lake in Poznań formed in 1952 by damming the Cybina River, about 2.2 kilometres long with a 5.6-kilometre path around it. It has one of the oldest man-made rowing courses in Europe, and its shores hold a ski slope, an ice rink, a zoo and a narrow-gauge park railway.
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