Route 9: At the foothill of the Poznań Citadel

North of Stary Rynek (the Old Market Square) lies St Adalbert's Hill (Wzgórze św. Wojciecha) with St. Adalbert's Church , a Gothic building with a seventeenth-century belfry. Its walls and Gothic vaulting are covered with Art Nouveau wall paintings made by Antoni Procajłowicz at the beginning of the twentieth century. At Christmas crowds of people visit the church to see the crib with mechanised historical figures: kings, national heroes, scholars and artists. In 1923, the Crypt of Eminent Citizens of Wielkopolska was established, which is the resting place of Józef Wybicki, the author of the Polish national anthem, Feliks Nowowiejski, a great composer, and former rectors of the church. The crypt also houses the urn holding the heart of General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski.


Opposite St Adalbert's Church stands St Joseph's Church , erected in the second half of the seventeenth century to the design of Krzysztof Bonadura the Elder. Its interior is very ascetic. The church, whose shape is typical of the "Wielkopolska Baroque" style, houses the grave of Mikołaj Skrzetuski, a defender of the town of Zbaraż against Cossacks and Tartars in 1649 and the inspiration for the main character of With Fire and Sword, a novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Adjacent to the church is a monastery of the Discalced Carmelites. Further to the north is the Cemetery for Eminent Citizens of Wielkopolska, Poznań's oldest necropolis. Established in the early-nineteenth century as the Parish Church cemetery, it is the resting place of participants of the Napoleonic Wars and national insurrections, academics, artists and three mayors of Poznań.


Come down the hill along Księcia Józefa Street, turn right into Niepodległości Avenue and continue until you reach the Citadel. Situated north of the Old Town, Winiary Hill was transformed into a fortress in the nineteenth century. In 1945 it was destroyed during a weekslong siege. The south-western slope of the hill is now occupied by cemeteries for soldiers who died in the two World Wars. The remains of the fortifications house the Museum of Armaments and the Museum of the "Poznań" Army . At present, the Citadel is a vast park with an area of nearly 100 ha, a popular destination for walkers and joggers. It is also the place where, in 2002, Magdalena Abakanowicz, a worldfamous Polish artist, created an open-air exhibition of her sculptures.

The permanent exposition of the Museum of Armaments is devoted to local people's resistance against Germans during the Partition era, the liberation of Poznań by the Soviet Army and the 1945 siege of the Citadel. The museum also has a large collection of military equipment.

The Museum of the "Poznań" Army shows military accessories, photographs and documents connected with the army. Its permanent exhibitions are: "The History of the "Poznań" Army (the military history of the Wielkopolska region in the years 1918-1939)", "The Fighting Wielkopolska 1939-1945" (the formation and activity of Polish clandestine organisations in occupied Wielkopolska during World War 2), "Memorabilia from the Battle of the Bzura River" (Juliusz Molski's collection).

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