Greetings from Poland, the 36th country we’ve visited together! (For anyone who’s counting, not all of those countries are included on this website.) Our first stop is Poznan, a 1,000-year-old city in western Poland that is hosting this year’s Urban Sketchers international conference. After that we plan to visit another old city in western Poland, Wroclaw, and then spend two months traveling around neighboring Germany.
Poznan (called Posen when it was ruled by Germans) is Poland’s fifth largest city, with a population of 530,000. It arose as an important fortified trading post on the main route between Berlin and Warsaw. Poznan is considered the birthplace of Christianity in Poland (in 966) and was the seat of the first king of Poland (crowned in 1025).
Today, the old center of Poznan, where we stayed, is a pleasant place with colorful buildings, shady parks, and a youthful vibe. The city is full of students, who crowd the pedestrian shopping streets, whiz around on motorized scooters, or rev their cars and motorcycles as loudly as possible on the roads. (That’s the soundtrack of Poznan for us.) The city is also considered the most gay-friendly place in an increasingly conservative Catholic country. In the old town, we saw two LGBT bars and cafes in busy downtown areas, operating as openly as any other business.
The heart of Poznan is the old market square (Stary Rynek), one of the prettiest plazas I’ve seen in Europe. It’s dominated by a big square town hall dating to 1555, with Italian-style arched galleries on the front, turrets, and a tall clock tower. Every day at noon and 3 p.m., a bugle call sounds and a small door opens high in the tower. Two mechanical metal goats slowly slide out, turn to face each other, and bump horns several times, before turning and sliding back through the door. It’s a decidedly underwhelming display, but it’s been happening for more than a century, and crowds gather to watch every time.
On a pleasant day, Stary Rynek is a wonderful place to while away a couple of hours eating at one of the many outdoor restaurants that line the square. There are endless people to watch and beautiful buildings to admire (or, if you’re like Melissa, to sketch). The square is surrounded by tall, colorful, Baroque-style houses that traditionally belonged to Poznan’s wealthiest families. Each house seems to be vying to outdo its neighbors with different roof gables and decorations. But together they form a beautiful backdrop for the bustle of the market square.
The center of the square originally contained rows of smaller, densely packed houses where artisans and tradespeople lived, worked, and sold their goods. A row of those houses was extensively restored after World War II, with even more color and diverse decoration than the Baroque mansions lining the square. Although some of the decoration has a 20th-century “ye olde” feel to it, the result is still fun to see.
Near the old market square is Poznan’s other crown jewel, a former Jesuit church from the late 1600s considered one of the best examples of Baroque architecture in Poland. From its pink facade to its lofty interior, profusion of gilt and plaster decoration, and booming organ (with free daily concerts at 12:15 in the summer), the church is designed to overawe all who enter. And although the huge columns are merely painted to look like marble, and the “dome” in the center of the ceiling is a tromp l’oeil painting, the lavish church wouldn’t feel out of place in Rome.
One thing we’ve struggled with in Poland is figuring how to pronounce place names. Whoever transliterated the Polish language did so in a way that isn’t intuitive for English speakers (C is pronounced ts, an L with a diagonal line through it is pronounced woo, etc.). I swear that one of the reasons Urban Sketchers picked Poznan for their conference is that it’s easy for non-Polish speakers to pronounce—unlike our next stop, Wroclaw, which is apparently pronounced vrots-woo-av.
Another distinctive aspect of Poland, the food, has been much more accessible. We’ve had fun discovering that pierogi (stuffed dumplings) come in a much wider variety in Poznan than they do at home—filled with everything from blueberries and cream cheese to roast duck with stewed apple. Whether boiled or fried, they’re delicious!
The food Poznan is most famous for is St. Martin’s croissants, traditionally stuffed with white poppy seed and glazed with a sugar drizzle. They range from normal croissant size to big enough for four people to share and were originally baked for St. Martin’s day (my birthday!). One of Melissa’s classes at the Urban Sketchers conference was held at a famous croissant bakery. The artists got to watch, and try to sketch, the croissant-making process, which apparently takes place at a rapid pace—the better to fill the demand of local residents and every tourist who visits Poznan. The croissants have a lovely flakiness, but the filling is too sweet for my taste. Still, I love the idea of having a famous dessert associated with my birthday.
