Is Poznań a city worth getting to know?
Yes, certainly yes!

There are 3 good reasons to visit Poznań

• Accessibility
• Attractiveness
• Friendliness

Poznań – our city

is situated in central-west Poland, in the centre of the Lowland of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland), 52-154 m above the sea level, in an undulating terrain moulded by the Scandinavian glacier. The city is located on the Warta river and its small tributaries, the Cybina and Główna rivers. Poznań is the capital of Wielkopolska Province. With an area of over 261.3 square kilometers and a population of some 600,000 inhabitants, Poznań is the fifth largest Polish city and an important academic, cultural and industrial centre. It lies on a very important transportation route, which connects Paris and Berlin with Warsaw and Moscow. The area round Poznań is plentiful in attractive lakes and green areas making it an ideal place for seekers of culture, leisure, and of course fun!

History

The beginnings of Poznań date back to the 9th century, when on an island, Ostrów Tumski, among the floodplains of the river Warta a town erected, grown to be one of the capital cities of the new Polish State. In the 10th century Poznań became the capital in Mieszko's I country and the seat of bishopric (Poland was christianised in 966).

In 1253 Poznań has been relocated to the left bank of the Warta and was given city rights, becoming the main city of the Wielkopolska.

In the 15th and 16th century a major development has occurred in the city placed on the crossings of the multiple trade paths and being gross craftsmanship’s centre. In the 19th century Poznań was under Prussian reign. The city has become the theatre of national liberation movements against the Prussian oppressor, crowned with the victorious Greater Poland Uprising of 1918-1919.

In the final stage of the Second World War, in February 1945 in the conduct of the fights for liberation from the Nazis' occupation, the city has been destroyed in 55 per cent.

Since 1946, the city has gone through a rapid reconstruction, followed by its major development. During communist times, Poznań suffered shortages and censorship and the climate of fear with the rest of Poland, and worsening economic conditions led to the first anti-communist protests in the city in June 1956.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the communist machine was starting to fall apart throughout Poland and later the rest of the Eastern Bloc. In 1981, a monument to the June 1956 uprising was erected, and in 1983 Pope John Paul II visited Poznań for the first time. Finally, when communism ended for good in Poland in 1990, the first free elections were held for local government in the city, and Poznań was made the capital of the Greater Poland Voivodship in 1999.

Today, with Poland in the European Union and NATO (whose first Polish base was located in Poznań), the city is facing the rebirth of economic prosperity, free artistic expression and cultural renewal, and inevitable tourism boom that being a free nation in the EU brings. We can only hope that the hard times are behind us, and that the city will only continue to grow and remain an important centre of cultural and economic exchange for western Poland.

Culture

Music lovers highly value Poznań’s violin competitions held here every five years. The Henry Wieniawski International Violin Competition is among the oldest events of this type. Its first edition was held in 1935. The competition has since gone international and is now one of the fifteen founding members of the Geneva-based World Federation of International Music Competitions, an organization bringing together over 100 members from all continents.

The Opera House - one of the leading opera theatres in the country and the Chamber Orchestra Amadeus are well known to the public.

The festivals of contemporary music Poznańska Wiosna Muzyczna (Poznań Musical Spring) are held every year. Poznań is famous in the world for its choirs: Boys' and Men's Choir of Poznań Philharmonics Poznańskie Słowiki (Poznań Nightingales), Poznań Boys' Choir and the Cathedral Choir.

A unique in Poland and the second in Europe Museum of Musical Instruments has been organising serial concerts of ancient music as well as the Festival of Celtic Music.

Jazz lovers are attracted to Poznań by its Age of Jazz Festival which is a series of club concerts based on the idea of a wandering festival. Jazz Fair is a meeting of the greatest celebrities of Polish and world jazz.

Every August, Dance lovers visit Poznań’s Contemporary Dance Workshop, a project of the Polish Dance Theatre – the Poznań Ballet School headed by Ewa Wycichowska. They attend dance courses and workshops taught by teachers and dancers of international acclaim.

Today, the former Emperor’s residence the Zamek (Castle) is the site of a number of permanent galleries and a venue for concerts, drama performances, meetings and debates. In the summer time, many concerts are held in the building’s courtyard.

Drama performance lovers are especially attracted to Poznań by the Malta International Festival, which is held each summer late June. The Festival is one of the most prominent events of this type in Central and Eastern Europe. Theatre groups from all over the globe arrive here to participate in the city’s open-air theatrical events.

Poznań is home to various museums. The National Museum of Art and Sculpture houses an extensive collection of Roman and Gothic art, collection of outstanding Polish painters and modern sculptors. The Museum of Musical Instruments is Poland’s only museum of this type and also Europe’s third largest. It permanently displays collection of string instruments featuring remarkable violins by Polish and Italian makers. Also on display are brass and mechanical instruments and a vast collection of pianos and Polish and foreign folk instruments.

The Archaeological Museum shows the Wielkopolska’s daily life from the Stone Age to late antiquity. The other two parts of its permanent exhibition shows Egyptian art and worship and funeral rite objects, and the archaeology of Sudan. The Poznań Museum is among a handful of similar institutions across the world, and the only one in Europe, to present such extensive and complete collections of works and artefacts of ancient Sudan.

It is only in Poznań that one can take part in Saint Martin’s Days, also referred to as the stree’s nameday. During this holiday, a colourful parade moves down Św. Marcin Street and Poznań’s Mayor hands over the city gates key to St Martin. One tradition that is unique to Poznań is the baking of sweet croissants which, as legend has it, take their shape from the horseshoes worn by a horse on which St. Martin rode into the city.

Every year in June, master artisans and antique collectors, merchants and craftsmen are attracted by Jarmark Świętojański (St. John’s Fair) which is held under way on the Poznań Stary Rynek (Old Market). The tradition of organising fairs (the Polish 'jarmark' comes from the German 'Jahrmarkt' which means annual fair) in Poznań dates back to Middle Ages.

Poznań is respectful to other cultures. St. Patrick’s Week, French Culture Days, the International Celtic Festival, Danish Culture Days, Brittany Days, Tzadik Festival, are among many others which feature concerts, exhibitions, films showing, lectures, and drama performances devoted to the cultures of the country or those of individual regions.

Science & Education

With a student population of 120,000, Poznań is among leading research and academic centres. Poznań is home to over twenty institutions of higher education specializing in a wide range of fields and disciplines. The most important of them are Adama Mickiewciz University, the Poznań University of Technology, Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences and the Poznań University of Economics. The city prides itself on its 48 research institutes, which conduct work in the fields of molecular physics, applied chemistry, biochemistry, automation and telecommunications. Many of these institutions maintain close links with foreign organizations and have had their achievements internationally recognized. Poznań has its own Supercomputing and Networking Centre with a 170-km-long fiberoptic network constructed for research purposes.

Trade & Business

Poznań prides itself on its trade fair traditions, which date back to the 13th century and specifically to 1254, the year on which Przemysł I bestowed the Town Privileges on the city in what is the oldest existing original document pertaining to the history of Poznań.

The 1st Poznań Fair was held in 1921. Immediately before the breakout of World War II, the Poznań Fair had grown to become one of Europe’s most prominent fair events. 1947 was the year of the first post-war Poznań International Fair making the dynamically-growing city of Poznań national trade capital. Poznań’s trade fair calendar includes over 40 specialized annual events that bring together thousands of manufacturers, trading companies, exhibitors, business people and research institutes from all over the world.

The numerous trade fair visitors, business people and scientists arriving in Poznań find it ideal venue for meetings, conferences and symposia. Poznań has the potential to become a major hub for convention tourism.

Tourism

Poznań belongs to the most important Polish centres of tourism. The Poznań International Fair, valuable historic monuments, museums and the city's location on international and national tourist routes make the city attractive for numerous visitors from the country and abroad. Sightseeing in Poznań can be done in a variety of ways. Tourist attractions include historic places: fountains, monuments, museums; places of sport and recreations; surroundings of the city. City tours include 10 itineraries wandering on the Old Market Square and adjacent area, museums, area of the old Warta River bad, the Poznań Citadel and lake Maltańskie and adjacent area. For more information please visit the Multimedia City Guide available on: www.poznan.pl, visit Centrum Informacji Miejskiej CIM www.cim.poznan.pl and Poznań Local Tourist Organization www.plot.poznan.pl. A detailed information about friendly places for disabled participants of our congress may be found on www.turystykadlawszystkich.pl.

Recreation & Entertainments

Poznań is a perfect place for the pursuit of active recreation. Near the centre are lakes with designated swimming areas, forests with bicycle and hiking trails and an artificial ski slope and sled track open year round. The Lake Malta area’s biggest attraction is its 150 meter year-round ski slope. The slope features a tow and a chair ski lift.

Along the northern shore of the lake runs the Children’s Miniature Train whose course ends at the New Zoo. Major part of the Zoo’s area consists of pine and mixed forests. To see the Zoo’s 2000 animals representing some 140 species, visitors may follow any of the three designated routes.

Poznań prides itself on having Poland’s largest Palm House established in 1910.The facility features some 17,000 species and varieties of plants from the Mediterranean and subtropical, tropical, savanna, and desert climates and a collection of exotic fish.

The Botanical Gardens are home to some of 8,000 plants species from all of the world’s climatic zones displayed in sections illustrating specific botanical environments such as steppes, peat-land, wet-land, forest, dunes and high elevations.

Located to the north of the old Town is Winiary Hill which was turned into a stronghold known as the Citadel in the 19th century. At present the site is a large park featuring an amphitheatre and a rose garden. Numerous paths and charming spots offer a perfect setting for walkers, roller skaters and bikers. A huge meadow in the park’s centre is a frequent venue for events and musical concerts.

Poznań offers a multitude of tennis courts, swimming pools, bowling centres, weight rooms, gyms, recreational centres, horseriding clubs and a golf course.

The theatre hosts a whole range of performances from opera and ballet to avant-garde and contemporary performances.

There are numerous places worth getting to visit, such as art galleries, exhibition in the museums, cinemas.

The nightlife in Poznań is said to rival. Poznań is considered at the very forefront of electro and dance music in Poland, and many of the nation's top DJs and producers hail from this part of the country. You can't go far wrong with nights out at the likes of Blue Note, Post Dali, Buddha Bar, and SQ Club.

EURO 2012

Since the announcement that Poznań was picked as one of the cities to host Euro 2012, the city has been making preparations. Hosting the European Championships will be a chance to improve the city's infrastructure, as well as transport to Poznań and within the city. New hotels will be built to accommodate the Euro 2012 visitors, and no doubt the event will bring thousands of tourists to the city that might not have otherwise had a chance to discover Poznan's charm.

Cuisine

Polish cuisine has elements taken from the cooking traditions of the many national groups that lived in the country side by side for centuries, notably the Jews, Ukrainians, Byelorussians and Lithuanians. There are also some Russian, German, Czech and Austrian influences as well as dishes from more distant regions: Italy, France and the Middle East. Poznań's restaurant scene is expanding all the time and you won't have any problem finding a decent spot. There's also plenty of room to chop 'n' change, with Italian, International and Oriental options now in play.

Take a look at website www.poznan-life.com. You may find there 38 places, marked on the Poznań map, which serve good food.

One Polish speciality is a profusion of excellent smoked meats, especially sausage (kiełbasa), very popular throughout the world, made after traditional recipes and smoked over juniper or fruit-tree twigs. Try kiełbasa myśliwska with juniper berries and kiełbasa lisiecka with a number of spices including garlic. You'll be delighted by the cured and smoked hams, poultry, pork and beef fillets, and bacons. Equally delectable are Polish pâtés made from a variety of meats including game.

Poland is renowned for its multifarious types of delicious bread: white, brown, wholemeal, with raisins, prunes, sesame seeds, poppyseed.

Common dishes found in the Greater Poland cuisine include:

• gzik (gzika) - cottage cheese with onion and/or chives
• kaczka z pyzami i modrą kapustą - roast duck with steam-cooked rolls and red cabbage
• pyry z gzikiem - boiled, peeled or unpeeled potatoes with gzik (see above) and butter
• rogale świętomarcińskie - croissants filled with poppy seeds, almonds, other nuts, traditionally eaten on November the 11th, St. Martin's Day.
• plendze - potato pancakes served with sugar
• kopytka - sort of dumpling

Shopping

Shopping in Poznań can be quite similar to what you'd expect at home as far as high street stores and malls go but you are bound to come across a few unexpected quirks from time to time. In the week, most high street shops will be open until around the 8-9pm region whilst at the weekends they will shut shortly after lunch. Larger stores and shopping centres will be open all day on Saturdays and Sundays. Walking down Półwiejska you'll find fashionable clothes and fancy footwear stores coupled with fast food outlets. At one end of Półwiejska is Stary Browar and at the other is Kupiec Poznański, both modern shopping centres which house all types of stores.

Recognizable city symbols

Town Hall

Formerly seat of the city council, one of the most valuable Renaissance architecture monuments in Central Europe. The earliest mention about it dates back to 1310. The Gothic town hall was at first an unimposing two - storey building and the tall tower was most probably not built until the early 16th century. Between 1550 and 1567, the town hall was reconstructed in the Renaissance style by the Italian architect Giovanni Batista Quadro of Lugano. The classicist cupola was restored to its form from the end of the 18th century. The building's most attractive feature is its front elevation with its colonnaded three - storey loggia and the three turrets above it. The medallions between the first and the second floor portray heads of wise men and heroes of antiquity. The attic storey features heads of the Polish kings from the Jagiellonian dynasty. Pictures of the kings from the Piast dynasty, started to be posted below the side turrets. In the centre turret, under the clock, there is a cartouche with the initials of king Stanislaus Augustus. Right above the clock there is a small ledge where every day at noon a pair of billy goats appears.

Billy Goats

At 12:00 precisely, two white mechanical goats appear from a door in the façade and butt heads a dozen times. The first goats were installed in 1551 by Bartłomiej of Gubin, and over the years have been restored and replaced. The present goats date from 1954. The legend goes as follows: when the clock was unveiled in 1511, it was to be shown off to the governor of the Poznań province. The cook preparing the celebratory feast burnt the venison. Panicking, he went out and stole a pair of goats to cook instead. But they escaped to the City Hall tower where the bemused guests saw them butting heads up on a ledge. The governor whimsically decreed that mechanical goats be added to the clock. The fate of the cook remains a mystery.

Bamberka

Bronze “Bamberka” figure is a decoration of a well in the centre of Poznań Old Market. Created in 1915 by Josef Wackerle (on the basis of a photograph of Ms. Jadwiga Gadziemska from Winiary in a traditional married woman’s Bamberg dress) and funded by a merchant and a wine-cellar owner Leopold Goldenring. It was moved from place to place and finally came back to Old Market in 1977. Bamberka commemorates the German settlers who arrived in war-torn northern Poznań in the eighteenth century from the area of Bamberg in Germany.

Pillory

There is a pillory nearby to the building of the Town Hall and trading houses. Criminals were punished there and they were exposed to everybody. Iron circuits were attached to the stone column and swindlers were put there. They were publicly punished and executed. In 1592 authorities made such a decision: it was necessary to beat a whip at a pillory gamblers who swindled during game then they were cut off an ear... It is curious, that the column was constructed on the penalties collected from dandies who liked to dress up more magnificently, than their public position them allowed.

Pegasus

The Teatr Wielki (Grand Theater) is Poznań's Opera House. The building, part of complex of parks and monumental structure built on an area that became available with the demolition of 19th fortification, was built in 1910 by the city's German authorities to a design of Munich architect Max Littmann It is one of ten Opera Houses currently operating in Poland. The building's neoclassical facade is crowned with Pegasus, the winged horse, which has become the symbol of the Poznań Opera.

Poznań International Fair

The leader of the Polish trade fair market and the second largest exhibition organiser in Central Europe. 1-12 December, 2008 the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP14 was brought 12,000 participants from 189 countries all over the world to the grounds of the Poznań International Fair.

St Martin’s croissant

Is a special delicacy for Poznań inhabitants. Its origins go back to the legend about Poznań confectioner who once dreamt about St Martin entering the town on a white horse. In the confectioner’s dream the horse stumbled and lost its splendid golden horsehoe. The confectioner believed his dream a sign, and the following morning he backed horshoe-shaped croissants, adding almonds, white poppy seed and nuts.

Then he gave backed croissants to the poor. In memory of that distant event, on the 11th of November, St Martin’s Day, which also happens to be Polish Independence Day, the confectioners of Poznań have always baked croissants. Poznań people pride themselves on their centuries’ old tradition, and rejoice in the city streets during grand fiestas organized that day. We will gladly share our traditional St Martin croissant with you!

Photo: WIKIPEDIA