Greater Poland

The pearls of the region are firts co-capitals plural!! of Poland from Xth-XIth cent with many monument referring to the beginnings of the Polish State :

Two most important centres of the first Poland : Gniezno and Poznań

other, which used to be very important in early middle ages, nowadays - small villages : Giecz 40 kms eastwards from Poznań and Ostrów Lednicki – on the way from Poznań to Gniezno.

Other bigger cities worth spending and least few hours in each are :

Kalisz

Koło

Leszno

Wolsztyn

Konin

Smaller towns with interesting monuments, events and traditions :

Kórnik 18 kms south-east from Poznan wit a neogothic castle with wonderful interions and furniture and a dendrological park and - last bu not least - with an extremely precious Library with manuscripts dating back to XIIIth centuy

Rogalin 16 kms to the south from the city with a baroque-klasicistic palace and its famous paiting collection of Raczynski family, horse cabs and very famous oaks in total : more than 500, including three well-knows trees : Lech, Czech i Rus.

Puszczykowo 15 kms to the south very easily accessible by train - a very interesting travel museum of a polish traveller Arkady Fedler, the seat of the management of Greater-Poland National Park with a nature museum.

Swarzędz just out of the city limits to the east, toward Warsaw - a small city famous for the unique in Poland and one of few in Europe bee-keeping open-air museums.

Nowy Tomysl with the biggest basket of the world and the Basketry Museum

Szamotuly - a town 35kms NW of Poznan with an incredible Icon Museum, Halszka Tower and collegiate church

In Greater Poland it's worth sometimes to drive out of main roads to see e.g. :

palaces in Dobrzyca, Śmiełów, Gołuchów or Antonin

Szreniawa 15 kms to the south-west - famous for the Agriculture Museum and the Bierbaums-family viewing tower

Kazimierz Biskupi near by Konin with an old romanesque church

Kłodawa with the biggest working salt mine in Poland

Tarnowo Pałuckie with the oldest wooden church in the country

Wełna with a unique water mills museum situated on a popular canoe trail along Wełna river

Another thing interesting for history-lovers can be the Greater-Poland part of the Cistersian Route. In the region the main places on the route are : Wągrowiec, Lekno where the first cistersian monastery on polish territorries was erected, Owinska - all three north-east of Poznań and Przemet, Obra and Wielen in the south-west part of the region, nearby Wolsztyn. Another monastery was placed in Lad - 70 kms east of Poznan, just next to motorway A2.

Another thing interesting for history-lovers can be the Greater-Poland part of the Cistersian Route. In the region the main places on the route are : Wagrowiec, Lekno where the first cistersian monastery on polish territorries was erected, Owinska - all three north-east of Poznan and Przemet, Obra and Wielen in the south-west part of the region, nearby Wolsztyn. Another monastery was placed in Lad - 70 kms east of Poznan, just next to motorway A2. More info about Cistersian in Greater Poland in English : (http://szlakcysterski.org...)