Wągrowiec

Wągrowiec (pronounced Vongrovyets) is a town of 26,000 inhabitants (in 2018) in north-east Greater Poland, about 60 km NE of Poznań at the banks of the Wełna River and Durowskie Lake. The history of the city (and its surroundings) is inseparably connected with the past of the Cistercian Order in Poland.

By plane
The closest airport (Ławica) is in Poznań (60 km). If necessary you can use one of the few flights to Bydgoszcz (70 km).

By train
Wągrowiec has a very convenient, but – due to infrastructure – not very fast connection with Poznań, calling at Skoki, Murowana Goślina, nearby Puszcza Zielonka forest. There are 8 to 10 trains daily (depending on the day) – with air conditioning low-floored diesel units. In 2010 the line Poznan-Wagrowiec will be repaired, afterwards the travel time will be shortened by 25-30 minutes, and the whole journey will take about 1 hour.

Wągrowiec has as well train links to small town of Golancz (20 km, 25 minutes) – 5 trains daily, but this line has very small importance for tourists (apart from maybe cyclers and anglers, as the line runs among lakes and forests.

By bus
In the region of Wągrowiec buses have (apart from the line to Poznań) more importance than trains. Regular buses run to:
 * Bydgoszcz: up to 5 daily
 * Gniezno: up to 12 daily
 * Łekno (the remnants of the Polish oldest Cistercian monastery) – over 25 daily
 * Piła - do 7 daily
 * Poznań - up 18 daily (the journey may take a long time, especially due to traffic in Poznań itself)
 * Rogoźno - a change for trains going to Poznań or northwards Kołobrzeg (Kolberg) at the Baltic Sea is possible – up to 8 daily
 * Tarnowo Pałuckie (the Polish oldest wooden church) – over 20 daily

By car
You can easily get to Wągrowiec from surrounding cities using regional roads: 196 from Poznań, 190 from Gniezno, 241 from Bydgoszcz or 251 from the Żnin area (important for those, who want to combine a stay in Wągrowiec with a visit to Piast Route.

Get around
Wągrowiec is a small town, so all main attractions are accessible on foot. Wishing to visit Lekno or Tarnowo Pałuckie you have to use out-of-town PKS buses.

See
Wągrowiec has several important monuments:
 * A late gothic parish church from 16th cent, built upon older, romanesque fundaments with three-aisle, hall interior. The most important person linked with this church is priest Jakub Wujek (a later rector of the Jesuit College in Poznań) – the person, who made the first Bible translation in polish. One can find Wujek's monument in front of the church – it's a reconstruction, the original one was destroyed by Nazi Germans during World War II.
 * The post-Cistercian church and monastery, existing in its present form since the 17th century, earlier monastery buildings have burnt in 1744. In the interiors: a precious altar with a baroque relief, nearby a high-school building, where in 1899 Stanislaw Przybyszewski (A famous polish poet of that epoque) took his final exams.
 * A regional museum – in the so-called abbot-house, rebuilt after a fire in 1987, with historical and ethnografical collection of Pałuki (a region on the borderland of Greater Poland and Kujawy), with a usual, but unique collection of match-etiquettes, coins and orders.
 * A bifurcation – that means simply a river-crossing, of two small river flowing throughout Wągrowiec: Wełna i Nielba. The crossing is man-made. The first canal was built by Cistercian monks in the Middle Ages to improve the city defensive system. Later on – in 1880 – during meliorating works, a new cala leading southwards was dug forming a crossing that way. An interesting thing is, that – despite of the artificial character of the crossing - only about 15% of waters of the two rivers mix, the rest flow in their own river-beds.
 * The Lakinski Piramide - a grave of captain of horse from the Napoleon Army, Franciszek Lakinski in the shape of a piramide

Accommodation in the vicinity

 * Hotel Marcel, Kobylec 136, 62-100 Wągrowiec, Phone: +48 67 262 11 07,
 * Holiday Centre "Adrian" in Skoki on the Budziszewskie Lake, Phone: +48 67 261 83 66
 * Holiday Centre "Expans", in Roscinno, on the Budziszewskie Lake, Phone: +48 61 848 93 07, or +48 61 840 32 61
 * Holiday Centre, 7, Wczasowa str., 62-085 Skoki, Phone: +48 67 812 48 81
 * "Demar" Holiday Centre, 3, Zamkowa str., 62-085 Skoki, Phone: +48 61 892 56 01
 * Youth Centre Antoniewo, Phone: +48 61 812 42 51,
 * Agritourism - Potulice 30, 62-100 Wągrowiec, Phone: +48 67 261 68 88
 * Grylewo Palace, Grylewo 25, 62-100 Wągrowiec, Phone: +48 67 261 28 87 - a big palace from XVIIIth cent., an old park nearby, 2 hectares at the lake bank

Connect
For more information – ask in the City Office, 15a, Kosciuszki Str (close to the Train and Bus station), phone: +48 67 262 15 22 or visit the official Wągrowec web-site (in English):

Go next
It's a good idea to spend one night in Wągrowiec and visit as well at least some of the surroundings:
 * Popowo Kościelne – a wooden church from 1629, rebuilt one century later, nearby: a lime-tree with a circumference of 450 cm.
 * Tarnowo Pałuckie – the oldest of the wooden churches in Poland (14th century) and as well one of the most precious. In the interiors there are marvellous polychromies from the mid-XVIIth cent, covering all the walls; on the northern wall scene from the life of St. Margaret, on the southern one: of St. Nicolas (the patron of the church); in the presbytery: scenes from the New Testament.
 * Budziejewko - an erratic block of St. Adalbert, where the saint was preaching before his lethal mission to the Prussians; circumference: 20.5 m. It's the oldest protected by law eraatic block in Poland (since 1840)
 * Łekno - originally the oldest city of the Paluki region, the first place of Cistercians in Poland, with preserved parts of the old city planning; in its western part - old gothic church from the 16th century, three-aisled.
 * Prusce - a classicistic palace from 1788, projected by the architect from Warsaw Jan Christian Kamsetzer, being for several decades a pattern for many other residences in Greater Poland. Nearby - the English Park with oak trees with the circumference up to 7 metres. On the way between Prusce and Wagrowiec a small building used to collect toll.
 * The Debina natural reserve - old oak-tree forest with one of unique places in western Poland, where grey heron nests.

Wagrowiec can be as well the starting point for excursions to the northern parts of the Piast Trail.