Wielkopolski National Park

The park covers about seventy-six square kilometres of pine and oak forest with a dozen lakes just south of Poznan, and its value is educational as much as scenic: the last glaciation left this ground and every classic landform of it is here within a short distance - a terminal moraine ridge, eskers running as narrow raised ridges through the forest, kettle holes filled by lakes, kames, and erratic boulders carried from Scandinavia, of which the largest, the Glaz Leszka, is a protected monument. Geographers have used it as a teaching landscape for a century. Lake Goreckie in the middle has a wooded island with a ruined castle folly on it, built in the 1820s. The park is reachable by suburban train from Poznan in half an hour, which makes it one of the most accessible national parks in the country, and the trails and cycle routes are used heavily at weekends.

History

Professor Adam Wodziczko first proposed a reserve here in 1922, and after ten years of effort two reserves were created in 1932, at Puszczykowo and around Lake Kociołek. A symbolic opening of the park took place on Osowa Góra in 1933, but it was formally created only in 1957, on 52.44 km², and it now covers 75.84 km² (Wikipedia, Wielkopolska National Park).

What's there

• A textbook of glacial forms - moraine, eskers, kettle holes and kames within a short distance.
• Scandinavian erratics - boulders carried here by ice, the largest a protected monument.
• Lake Goreckie - a wooded island with an 1820s castle folly ruin on it.
• Half an hour from Poznan - suburban trains to the park edge.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Things to know

It is close to a city and busy at weekends. The landforms need some interpretation to read - without it the forest is just forest. Camping is prohibited. Trails are shared with cyclists and can be crowded.

Nearby

Poznan is north; Morasko meteorite reserve is on the city's other side.

Key facts