P for Poznań Old Market Square

 

Have you ever been to Poznań?

Another letter in "My Polish Alphabet" is "P" and it stands for Poznań Old Market Square.

 

Poznań is one of the oldest cities in Poland. I have visited it many times, but never cared much for the rest, meaning the more modern part of the city. 

The beginnings of Poznań date back to the 9th century, however, even much earlier settlements were discovered in that area (from 8,000 BC).

The old town was built in 1253, when Poznań was granted city rights. I love the atmosphere of the place. Every day at 12 noon, you can watch the two billy goats on the clock tower butting their heads. 

12 o'clock noon - the show starts

 

The place is totally different from the rest of Poznań (which is just like any other big city - loud and busy). The old market square has a totally different atmosphere. 

 

Apollo fountain

 

There are four fountains on the Market Square. The Apollo fountain (the basin part) is made of sandstone. The statue of Apollo is a bronze figure.

 

Sometimes, while visiting the place, you may have an unexpected encounter. See the reenactment group below, the old pranger column in the background.

 

In medieval ages, the pranger was a place of torture and humiliation - a person was stuck to it and "treated" by an executioner. The original pranger column has been stored in a local museum, the current one, topped with a statue of a torturer, is its modern replacement.

Besides the old city council building and the clock tower, the old town section also has a residential area, with its old houses and a network of streets.

The building at the end of the street, above, is the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Saints Mary Magdalene and Stanislaus of Szczepanów, commonly known as the Poznań Fara. It was built in the 17th century - very pretty and elaborate decorations inside.

If you are a fan of archeology, you can also visit a nearby museum.

If you get tired walking around, you can rest in one of the market square cafes, remember to try the original pastry of Poznań - St. Martin's croissants (rogale marcińskie). The croissants are big and sweet, I could not manage to eat one. 

St Martin's croissants

The tradition of making them dates back to the end of 19th century. About the 11th November, the parish priest of St. Martin's church asked the parish people to do something for the poor. One of the local pastry makers made three baking sheets of the sweet croissants and brought them to the church area. Every year, more and more bakers joined him and the tradition developed. 

 

These days you can buy St. Martin's pastry in Poznań all year round. The most is sold and eaten on 11 November, St Martin's day.

Credits: Photo of croissants: By Rzuwig - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64033312

Polish Heritage Center in Panna Maria

We came back to Panna Maria after nine years, to participate in the opening ceremony of the Polish Heritage Center. On the day of the first visit there, during our honeymoon, we met very few people, maybe four. The second visit was very different as quite a crowd gathered for the opening day celebrations.

 

The event and the call were quite meaningful to us, and they did appear to be full of coincidences or some kind of messages from above. Well, we knew nothing about the origins of the Center besides the fact that the first Polish Silesian settlers in Texas founded Panna Maria. During the opening ceremony, we learned that it was Bishop Emeritus John Yanta who had given the idea of creating the Polish Heritage place. The thought came to him nine years ago - at the same time, when I was still in Poland, we started preparing for our life together and initiated the legal procedure of my coming here.

After the official part, there was sightseeing and looking around time, and the artistic program presented by the Polish folk group from Dallas. Quite accidentally, we met an old acquaintance, who was that group member. The three of us had used to be part of the original Polish-American Dance Ensemble which had its base in the Dallas area.

We also re-experienced the places that we visited during our first Panna Maria call - the old Pilarczyk store and visitors center, the old church, and the school that years ago, was the only museum place there.

 

Some things have changed within those years. New statues near the church had been founded. We also noticed many changes in the Panna Maria area, including the oil rigs that had emerged around.

I like that part of the Heritage display. However, it is a bit confusing. The nun is pointing at the word "słoń" (=elephant). The word "koń" (=horse) is next to it, to the left. Was it meant to be like that?

The Polish Heritage Center is quite an impressive and interesting place. We were glad we could be in Panna Maria on that special day. Another coincidence was that I had not looked for the information about the place/event. I simply did not know it was being built. It found me on its own, by chance. Or maybe not. Maybe we were meant to be there.

More about our first visit to Panna Maria, years ago, in the old post here.