The Old Market Square is the main square of Poznań ( Poznań , a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland ) and used to be the city center. The market square, as a market for buying and selling goods and a place of celebration, was designed since the founding of the city in 1253. The market is located in the Old Town of Poznań and has an area of about two hectares.
At the end of the Second World War, Poznań’s Old Town was severely damaged. The patrician houses around the square, mostly from the baroque period, were destroyed and were rebuilt after 1945 in their historical form, or at least their facades.
It has a square plan with a side length of about 141 m and surrounds, typical of Polish Rynek, a group of public buildings and shops.the Old Market is the third largest market square in Poland (after Kraków and Wroclaw) and one of the largest in Europe. After the reconstruction, thanks to the successful restoration, today it is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the city.
Access : Coordinates: 52.408333°, 16.934444° / The market is located in the Old Town of Poznań.
Highlights :
- No. 84: House of the town hall builder Giovanni Battista di Quadro, now a Literary Museum dedicated to Henryk Sienkiewicz, author of the famous historical novel Quo Vadis.
- Wodna No. 27: The Renaissance palace of the Górka family from 1549 forms the south-east corner of the square.
- On the west side the classical Hauptwache – a complex rebuilt by Johann Christian Kamsetzer in 1787, which today houses the Museum of the Poznań Uprising of 1918/19.
- Row of three-storey shopkeepers’ houses built from 1535 with their characteristic arcades, originally shops and apartments for small traders.
- Old Town Hall – built in the 1550s, the city’s most important architectural monument and one of the most important Renaissance town halls in Europe. Today it houses the Poznan City History Museum.
- Stary Rynek 42-45: The three town houses from the 16th to 19th centuries house the Musical Instrument Museum / No. 50, 51: The only two houses from the late Middle Ages.
- No. 78: Dzialynski Palace – Early Classicist building from the 18th century / Classicist Mielzynski Palace – 1795–1798 / Hotel Bazar and Hotel Rzymski are not far from the Old Market. / There are sculptures from different centuries on the Old Market.
Go next : Poznań Cathedral / The King’s Castle / The City Church of St. Stanislaus and Our Lady. / The Gorka Palace./ Środka district.
