Poznań

• 1.07m
• 142 000
• 879 €
• 1853 h
• Poznań - Ławica Airport / 5km

Thanks to recent restoration works the ornamentation on the facade of the city hall can be seen in its full glory.

You are very likely to find yourself in Poznań on a business trip. Its citizens, Poznaniaks, have become a Polish synonym of the hard-working, dilligent, frugal. Stereotypes aside, the city is underpinned with an entrepreneurial spirit, but there is much to discover outside the boardroom door.

Poznań’s GDP per capita is double the Polish average, making it the second wealthiest big city in the country. It is an international centre of conventions and fairs, home to multinational companies and many billionaires from the list of Poland’s richest. It also boasts the highest per capita ratio of retail space in Poland. Even the city’s landmark hotel (temporarily closed) is called Bazar. No wonder then that the everyday life of the city revolves around places related to trade.

First comes the Poznań international trade fair (Międzynarodowe Targi Poznańskie) area. Conveniently, the glazed gateway building is the first thing one sees walking out of the main train station. Over it looms one of the landmarks of the city – the fifties steel spire, flood lit in the evenings, showing just how important this place is economically and symbolically for the city. The fairgrounds however, are not for the average Poznaniak, they are mainly for the visiting people.

The facade of the Stary Browar shopping, business and cultural centre gleams over Dąbrowski Park.

Both locals and visitors mingle on the Market Square (Rynek). In the centre of it is another landmark, a renaissance jewelry box of a building – the graciously ornamented city hall designed by Gian Battista Quadro. In the warmer part of the year, the square turns into Poznań’s playground, bustling with life, much like the mercatos south of the Alps, where the Quadro came from. The Rynek is only nominally a market nowadays. Poznań’s famous neighbourhood grocery markets have taken over this function long ago. There you can buy flowers round the clock, stock up on fresh fruit from the famously fertile region of Wielkopolska that Poznań is the capital of, or look out for regional specialties. For the sweet tooth there is the rogal marciński – a super-sized croissant, filled with poppy seed, for others – ser smażony, fried cheese with cumin. Both have been recently added to the European register of foods of protected geographical origin.

The social importance of neighbourhood markets has been somewhat undermined by Stary Browar – a gigantic retail and cultural complex, erected nearly a decade ago and stone’s throw from the Old Town. The daring project of Poland’s wealthiest woman, Grażyna Kulczyk, quickly became a favourite meeting spot for Poznaniaks from all walks of life. But it is interesting to outsiders as well for its flamboyant architecture, and contemporary art shows and performances. Architecture lovers will also appreciate Stary Browar’s older cousin – Okrąglak (the round house). The modernist department store opened in 1955 and instantly became a contemporary icon for the city, thanks to its surprising round shape and a modular concrete facade. It is now closed for renovation and is set to reopen as an office building with a rooftop café.

The artificial Malta Lake in the eastern part of the city is the heart of a vast park. It hosts canoeing and rowing championships and gave name to a renowned performing arts festival.

When you get tired of shopping and striking business deals, Poznań offers a lot for the soul. It is home to renowned dance and theatre troupes, such as Polski Teatr Tańca, and the biggest performing arts festival in the country – Malta, organised every year in June, taking over streets, squares, factory lofts and theatres too. Its name is not a homage to the Mediterranean country, but a reference to the lake and the park on the eastern edge of the city where the festival started some two decades ago. Speaking of beginnings, Poznań is probably the place where the Polish state started around 966 AD. Historians and archaeologists have been waging an academic war over this for a century or so, split into two camps. One follows early chronicles that hint at Gniezno, a town east of Poznań, where prince Mieszko the First was officially baptised and pledged his allegiance with the German emperor.

The other camp has been ceaselessly digging up the cathedral island (Ostrów Tumski) in Poznań looking for traces of the actual event. Looking at a well-maintained, affluent city like Poznań now, one can only say that it would not be such a bad place to start.

Piotr Korduba

Author of books on an official and intimate history of Poznań, lecturer at the Institute for Art History at Adam Mickiewicz University

Wojciech Fibak

Art collector, world-class tennis player in the 1970s. Raised in Poznań, lives in Warsaw

Stary Browar / Old Brewery
ul. Półwiejska 32

I am not terribly keen on shopping centres, I’m proud that in my hometown we’ve got this amazing space and atmosphere that doesn’t give you the impression that it’s just about renting every possible square metre for the highest commercial rent. This is thanks to the fantastic architecture that brings together a post-industrial interior of the 19th century Hugger brewery and ultramodern technology and construction techniques. The Old Brewery is much more than a shopping mall or the new hotel.

Grażyna Kulczyk, the owner, has turned it into a place for art lovers, who come en masse not only for the art exhibitions, but also the shows of modern dance, fashion and contemporary design. It’s a place I go every time I come to Poznań to visit my mum.

Marek Krajewski

Sociologist, author of many books on pop culture, consumerism, design and art. Lives in Poznań