Essential Poznań

9 Essential Sights

1 Old Town Hall Poz’s glorious Town Hall features an impressive history museum (sadly closed) and mechanical goats who butt heads each day at 12:00 noon.QSee p.18.

2 Poznań Fara One of Poznań’s most iconic and impressive historical monuments, this former Jesuit temple is a pink effusion of Baroque extravagance.QSee p.17.

3 Plac Kolegiacki While the Market Square is under construction, this renovated just southeast of it has taken on many of its social and cultural functions.QSee p.17.

4 Royal Castle Once the pride of Poznań, this royal residence has been faithfully rebuilt and includes the Applied Arts Museum, observation decks, and more.QSee p.20.

9 Old Town Square Poznań’s beautiful Old Town Square should really be number one on any best-of list. However, this year there’s a bit of a complication: the square is undergoing renovations scheduled to run until summer 2023 and as such has turned into a loud and messy construction zone. Not quite the picture of Old Town charm we’re used to. While there is still access to all of the square’s restaurants, bars, and museums, exploring the Rynek is not what is used to be, which is why we’re foregoing printing our usual Old Town Square walking tour in this issue, but you’ll still find it online. A few words about history, though: the Old Town Square was demarcated around 1253, and is apparently the third largest in Poland after the main squares of Kraków and Wrocław. Sadly destroyed during WWII, it was reconstructed in the postwar years - though the Cloth Hall that used to stand in its centre was replaced with a pair of commie-tastic concrete carbuncles, one of which housed the Arsenał Gallery (p.39) until very recently. Some of the most compelling monuments situated on the square are the Old Town Hall, an 18th-century police guardhouse turned into the Wielkopolska Uprising Museum (p.45), and the 16th-century Municipal Scales building, originally used to weigh merchandise.

5 Imperial Castle More a palace than a ‘castle,’ Poznań’s fearsome 1910 Zamek offers guided tours and includes museums, restaurants, bars and more.QSee p.23.

6 Ostrów Tumski Also called Cathedral Island, it was on this island that Poznań was founded, and - arguably - ‘where Poland began’.QSee p.24.

7 The Enigma Cipher Centre A brand-new interactive museum dedicated to the three Poznań cryptologists who deciphered the German Enigma code during WWII.QSee p.47.

8 Citadel Park This 19th-century hilltop military fortress was the Nazis’ final stronghold in 1945. Today it’s a leafy 89ha park full of monuments, cemeteries, and museums. QSee p.56.