We use cookies on this website to monitor statistics, control quality and functionality, and carry out marketing activities.
By disabling cookies you limit or exclude key website features such as video playback, form submission or the interactive mock-up.
You can change your browser cookie settings at any time.
ul. Św. Marcin 80/82, Stare Miasto, Poznań
The Imperial Castle on Święty Marcin street is the youngest imperial residence in Europe, built between 1905 and 1910 for Wilhelm II to a design by Franz Schwechten. Its Neo-Romanesque mass, with a massive tower and an irregular plan, dominates the so-called castle district, created after the old city fortifications were dismantled.
The construction was meant to underline that Greater Poland belonged to the Reich. A story is linked with the castle about a peasant from Górczyn who is said to have predicted that once the building was finished, Poland would return to the map. During the Second World War the interiors were rebuilt for the German administration; after the war cultural institutions took the building over.
Today it houses the Zamek Culture Centre, the Animation Theatre and the Museum of the Poznań June 1956 Uprising. The publicly accessible spaces, the courtyard and the café are open without a ticket, while some historic rooms are visited with separate admission. Allow about an hour to see the building.
