Ostrow Lednicki

Ostrow Lednicki is an island in Lake Lednica between Gniezno and Poznan, and in the tenth century it carried one of the principal seats of Mieszko I and Boleslaw Chrobry: a rampart around the whole island, a stone palatium with a round chapel attached to it, and two wooden bridges running to the shores, one of them over four hundred metres long, whose piles are still in the lakebed and have been dated by dendrochronology to the 960s. In the chapel floor are two cross-shaped masonry basins, and the argument that these were used for baptism - possibly for the baptism of 966 - has run for decades without resolution; Poznan makes a competing claim. What is not in dispute is that this was a central place of the first dynasty. The mainland museum holds the finds, including weapons recovered from the bridge crossings, and the surrounding area is a large ethnographic park.

What you actually see

• A stone palatium and chapel - the tenth-century residence on the island.
• Two cross-shaped basins - argued over as baptismal fonts for decades.
• Bridge piles in the lake - a crossing over four hundred metres, dated to the 960s.
• Finds from the water - weapons recovered at the bridgeheads, in the shore museum.

When to go

May to September. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The island is reached by boat, which runs seasonally and stops in bad weather or ice. The remains are foundations, not standing buildings. The baptism claim is disputed. Closed Mondays.

Nearby

Gniezno cathedral is fifteen kilometres east; the Wielkopolska ethnographic park is beside the lake.