Sights in Poznań
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Parish Church
The Parish Church was originally built for the Jesuits by architects from Italy. After more than 80 years of work (1651–1732), an impressive baroque church was created, with an ornamented façade and a lofty interior supported on massive columns and crammed with monumental altars.
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Church of St John of Jerusalem
One of the oldest brick churches in the country, this late-12th-century building was extended in the Gothic period and later acquired a baroque chapel. The interior contains beautiful Gothic star vaults, and the Romanesque doorway in the main western entrance is magnificent.
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Weigh House
The Weigh House is a postwar replica of the 16th-century building designed by Quadro, which was dismantled in the 19th century. South of it are two discordant postwar structures on the site of the old arsenal and cloth hall.
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Town Hall
Poznań's Renaissance Town Hall, topped with a 61m-high tower, instantly captures your attention. Its graceful form replaced the 13th-century Gothic town hall, which was consumed by fire in the early 16th century, along with much of the town. It was designed by Italian architect Giovanni Battista Quadro and constructed from 1550 to 1560; only the tower is a later addition, built in the 1780s after its predecessor collapsed.
The crowned eagle on top of the spire, with an impressive wingspan of 2m, adds some Polish symbolism.The main eastern façade is embellished with a three-storey arcade. Above it is a painted frieze depicting kings of the Jagiellonian dynasty, and a cloc…
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St Adalbert's Church
Its 16th-century, freestanding wooden belfry is the only substantial historic wooden building in Poznań. Inside the church, the Gothic vaulting is decorated with striking Art Nouveau wall paintings. The crypt beneath, open to visitors, has become a mausoleum for the most eminent Poles from Wielkopolska, among them Józef Wybicki, who wrote the lyrics of the national anthem.
During the Christmas period, the mechanised szopka (Nativity scene) is open in the church. It includes several dozen movable figures that depict the history of the region, from Mieszko I to the present day.
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Citadel Park
The large Citadel Park is laid out on what was once a massive Prussian fortress known as the Citadel (Cytadela). It was involved in one major battle, when the Germans defended themselves for four weeks in 1945, and was completely destroyed apart from a few fragments. Today the park incorporates two museums: the Museum of Weapons and the Museum of the Poznań Army. There are also cemeteries for Polish, Soviet, British and Commonwealth soldiers, all on the southern slopes of the hill.
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Zoological Gardens
Poznań’s original zoo, and one of the oldest in Poland. Animal lovers can breathe reasonably easily: the oldest enclosures are no longer occupied, with most larger animals having been relocated to the New Zoo. Those that remain include giraffes and zebras in a sizable open space. The remaining faded, but decorative, 19th-century facilities are populated by birds, otters, lemurs, alpacas, reptiles and amphibians, including some vividly coloured poisonous frogs.
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Museum of Musical Instruments
It houses hundreds of instruments, from whistles to concert pianos, but it’s less interesting than it should be. One room on the ground floor is filled with intriguing musical devices including a typewriter for musician notation, and a polyphon, the precursor of the record player. Upstairs, however, it’s like an antiques clearance sale – rooms of pianos, rooms of violins, and so on, with little creative attempt to give them a context.
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Monument to the Victims of June 1956
The Monument to the Victims of June 1956 is one of Poznań's most significant memorials. It commemorates the ill-fated workers' protest. The monument, consisting of two 20m-tall crosses bound together, was unveiled on 28 June 1981, the 25th anniversary of the strike, at a ceremony attended by more than 100,000 people. It's a huge, evocative landmark, similar to the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers in Gdańsk.
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Museum of Poznań June 1956
The Museum of Poznań June 1956, next door to the Monument to the Victims of June 1956, is housed within the neo-Romanesque Kaiserhaus ( M0158), which was built from 1904 to 1910 for Emperor Wilhelm II.
In addition to the Kaiserhaus, there are copious examples of Prussian architecture in this area. Notable specimens include the Teatr Wielki, the Collegium Maius ( M0159) and the Collegium Minus ( M015A).
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Archaeological Museum
Inside the 16th-century Górka Palace (Pałac Górków) is the Archaeological Museum. Before going in, stop and have a look at the fine Renaissance doorway on the building’s eastern façade. The museum itself presents the prehistory of the region, from the Stone Age to the early medieval period, as well as an extensive Egyptian collection.
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Museum of the Wielkopolska Uprising
The Museum of the Wielkopolska Uprising details the battles waged by Polish fighters seeking independence from Germany after the end of WWI. It’s an interesting if compact institution with displays of military uniforms, weaponry, photographs and documents created for the newborn Polish state that the Uprising hoped to help create. There’s a brochure in English.
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National Museum
The National Museum has an extensive collection of Polish and European art displayed in countless rooms. The building’s architecture isn’t much to look at, but the art is displayed to best advantage in the spacious and light-filled interior and, unusually for Polish museums, it has disabled access throughout.
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Cathedral
Today Ostrów Tumski is a tiny, quiet ecclesiastical quarter radiating an air of history, dominated by Poznań's monumental, double-towered Cathedral . Basically Gothic with additions from later periods, most notably the baroque tops of the towers, the cathedral was badly damaged in 1945 and took 11 years to rebuild.
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Monument to the Poznań Army
The Monument to the Poznań Army is stark, modern monument dedicated to the local armed force that resisted the German invasion of 1939 for almost two weeks. It's just opposite the sloping Cemetery of the Meritorious (Cmentarz Zasłużonych; M015F), the oldest existing graveyard in the city (1810).
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Historical Museum of Poznań
The Historical Museum of Poznań is inside the town hall. There’s an interesting and well-presented exhibition on the town’s history, despite the lack of English text, and the building’s original interiors are worth the entry price on their own.
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Dominican Church
The oldest surviving monument on the west side of the river is the former Dominican Church, now belonging to the Jesuits. Built in the mid-13th century, it was repeatedly reshaped and redecorated in later periods, but the fine early-Gothic doorway at the main entrance is still in place.
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Franciscan Church
Just south of the castle is the richly decorated baroque Franciscan Church Its Chapel of the Virgin Mary (Kaplica NMP), in the left transept, has a carved oak altar and a tiny, reputedly miraculous image of St Mary.
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Palm House
Constructed in 1910, this is one of the biggest greenhouses in Europe. Inside, 19,000 species of tropical and subtropical plants are housed, including the continent’s largest cactus collection and its tallest bamboo trees.
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Fish Sellers' Houses
The Fish Sellers' Houses, on the south east side of the Stary Rynek, is an endearing row of small arcaded buildings. They were built in the 16th century on the site of fish stalls and later reconstructed after major WWII damage.
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Museum of Applied Arts
The collection includes furniture, gold and silverware, glass, ceramics, weapons, clocks, watches and sundials from Europe and the Far East. Exhibits date from the 13th century to the present.
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Museum of the Poznań Army
This museum houses weapons, armour and ornaments from throughout the history of the Poznań army, including planes, tanks military hardware, rocket launchers and trucks.
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New Zoo
This sprawling institution covers 116 hectares at the eastern end of the lake, and houses diverse species including Baltic grey seals, in a leafy pine forest environment.
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St Mary's Church
St Mary's Church was built in the mid-15th century. Just behind it is the early-16th-century Psałteria ( M0164), which was home to the choristers.
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Ethnographic Museum
It has a good collection of folk woodcarving – of note are the large roadside posts and crosses – and traditional costumes of the region.
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