Lednica Landscape Park
How to get there
You can reach Lednica Landscape Park from Poznań by taking domestic road no. 5 to Gniezno. After passing Pobiedziska, in Lednogóra turn left after the lake. You should watch carefully road signs, as the slip road can be easily missed.
The Museum of First Piasts in Lednica is situated 2 km off Poznań-Gniezno road (and can be accessed by coach, get off at the Dziekanowice stop) and 5 km away from a railway station in Lednogóra.
In Dziekanowice, at the eastern bank of the lake, Wielkopolski Ethnographic Park is situated about 300 m from the Poznań-Gniezno route. The Park can be accessed by coach (get off at the Dziekanowice stop) and it takes a 45 min. walk to get there from the railway station in Lednogóra, which is situated in about 4 km distance. The Park features the most precious examples of rural architecture from the Wielkopolska region dating back to 16th-20th c. The exhibition divided in two parts presents an old village and manor. Visitors to the Park can admire authentic old craftsmen's workshop. One of historic farms is inhabited and neighboring fields are cultivated making it an enlivening example of real life in the country.
In the Park, 53 examples of farm, manor, sacral and estate architecture that originate from various parts of Wielkopolska are set in the beautiful scenery of Lake Lednica. The original interior and exterior decoration has been preserved in majority of structures. When you take a walk (about 2 hours) between the old farms, you will see an old smithery, visit a farm house, face a small village church, go up the hill with different types of wind mills and admire the panorama of Lake Lednica. You can also stop by at a village cemetery, pop into an 18th c. chapel and rest in the park surrounding the manor.
See also
The Park established in 1988 covers five islets on Lake Lednica and surrounding areas. Following size revision conducted in 1998, its area officially amounts to 7.652 ha. The Park was designed to protect the area around Lake Lednica, which is the cradle of Polish state. You can find numerous traces of settlement dating back to Neolithic Age there, and in the Ostrów Lednicki islet you will see the ruins of the seat of Prince Mieszko I, the first Polish ruler from the Piast dynasty who united the lands of various tribes living in Poland at that time and assumed Christianity. The preserved ramparts of a large stronghold surround the relicts of structures dating back to the 10th and 11th c; ruins of a stone chapel, palace and baptistery, as well as the foundations of a church dating back to the same period. You can reach the islet by ferry from the direction of a Small Open Air Museum near Dziekanowice.
Apart from the stronghold, in Ostrów Lednicki, ruins of four other medieval towns, including wooden and brick manor houses and granaries surrounded by forests with monumental trees and attractive plant communities can be seen in the Park. The Park's area has been formed by a glacier during the latest glaciation. Its landscape is predominated by farmlands, as intensive settlement resulted in area's deforestation as early as in the Middle Ages. Forests have been preserved only in a small area with more varied surface features in the northern part of the Park.