Gniezno

Slavonic settlements stood on Lech Hill and Maiden Hill by the 8th century, and a ducal stronghold was built on Lech Hill just before 940. Legend says Lech settled here after finding a white eagle on its nest against a red sunset, and named the place from gniazdo, "nest". After Mieszko I accepted Christianity, his son Bolesław the Brave laid the relics of St Adalbert in a church on the hill, and in the year 1000 the Congress of Gniezno, when Bolesław received Emperor Otto III, created Poland's first archbishopric here. Bolesław was crowned in the cathedral in 1024.

The Bohemian duke Bretislav I sacked the town in 1038, and the rulers moved their capital to Kraków, but Gniezno remained the church's capital. Kings were crowned here again in 1076, 1295 and 1300; the town gained municipal rights in 1238, and in 1419 its archbishops became Primates of Poland. Fairs and crafts kept it among Poland's major towns until the mid-17th century, and it was devastated by the Swedish wars of the 17th and 18th centuries and a plague in 1708–1710.

Prussia annexed the town in 1793 as Gnesen, and it became a centre of Polish resistance to Germanisation. It returned to Poland after the Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–1919. Under German occupation in the Second World War residents were executed and more than 10,000 people from the city and county were expelled or sent to camps, and patients of the Dziekanka psychiatric hospital were murdered. Pope John Paul II visited in 1979 and 1997, and in 2000 the Sejm met here for the millennium of the Congress.

Gniezno's identity is religious and historical. Its archbishop is the Primate of Poland, the cathedral is one of the country's most important churches, and the feast of St Adalbert on 23 April is celebrated as the city's own name day. Pilgrims come for the saint's relics, and at the 1997 celebrations of the thousandth anniversary of his death the city drew presidents of seven Central European countries and some 280,000 pilgrims. Large Catholic youth gatherings take place each year at Lake Lednica, between Gniezno and Poznań.

The story of the first Piasts is told everywhere: in the Museum of the Origins of the Polish State, in the statue of Bolesław the Brave by the cathedral — demolished by the Germans in 1940 and rebuilt after the war — and in the Piast Trail, Poland's oldest tourist route, which links Gniezno with Ostrów Lednicki, Strzelno, Kruszwica and Biskupin. The Aleksander Fredro Theatre is the city's stage, and there are summer organ concerts in the cathedral, a jazz festival in June and an amateur film festival, Offeliada, in November.

The most popular sports club is Start Gniezno, a motorcycle speedway team, and the city also holds an annual speedway tournament named after Bolesław the Brave. The European long-distance footpath E11 passes through Gniezno. Gniezno is twinned with Esztergom, Speyer and Saint-Malo among others, and in 2022 it ended its twinning with Russia's Sergiyev Posad after the invasion of Ukraine.

Gniezno had about 67,000 people in 2021, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, and it is the seat of Gniezno County. The city is divided into 12 residential districts, among them Winiary and Ustronie, and five lakes lie within its limits: Jelonek on the west, Winiary on the north, Świętokrzyskie in the centre, Koszyk and Zacisze. The river Wełna, a tributary of the Warta, crosses its north-eastern edge.

The economy mixes large manufacturers with many small firms. Among the biggest employers are a factory making roof windows and fittings for Velux, and a Panasonic plant that is Europe's largest producer of zinc-carbon batteries, alongside makers of chimney systems and car parts. Higher education includes the Collegium Europaeum Gnesnense of Adam Mickiewicz University, a state vocational college and the Primate's theological seminary, which bring students and seminarians into the centre. The city is also a busy rail and bus junction for the surrounding countryside, with trains to Poznań in under an hour.

Gniezno eats like the rest of Greater Poland. Polish staples dominate menus in the old town: pierogi, gołąbki — cabbage leaves stuffed with meat — breaded pork cutlet, kotlet schabowy, and soups such as żurek, a sour rye soup, or rosół, a clear meat broth, which traditionally opens a three-course dinner. The milk bar, bar mleczny, a survival of the communist era, still serves cheap home cooking, and vodka has long been popular. Herring, cured meats and surówka, shredded raw vegetable salads, are common starters and sides.

Around St Martin's Day on 11 November, bakeries across Greater Poland sell rogal świętomarciński, the St Martin's croissant with a white poppy-seed filling traditionally made in Poznań and parts of the region, whose name and recipe are protected in the European Union.

Eating out centres on the market square and Tumska Street, the street that climbs from the old town to the cathedral, where restaurants and cafés cater to visitors and pilgrims as well as locals.