Grand designs: Stunning plans for Greater Poland Uprising museum revealed
A new museum in Poznań commemorating the Greater Poland Uprising has been unveiled in a series of stunning visualisations.
Przemysław Terlecki, director of the Independence Museum of the Greater Poland Province, which commissioned and is overseeing the new museum, said: “It will be a fantastic monument to the Uprising, and at the same time, a place serving as the optimal history lesson, with the most valuable exhibits for the people of Greater Poland, which have already been passed to the museum's collections.
Due to start building work this year at a cost of 375 million PLN, the museum will cover an area of 300 square metres underground alongside four administrative, conservatorial and public service buildings.
In addition to history, the site will encourage contact between Poznań’s current inhabitants by creating a public square.
Przemysław Terlecki, director of the Independence Museum of the Greater Poland Province, which commissioned and is overseeing the new museum, said: “It will be a fantastic monument to the Uprising, and at the same time, a place serving as the optimal history lesson, with the most valuable exhibits for the people of Greater Poland, which have already been passed to the museum's collections."
He added: "We have already carried out numerous queries in museum collections in our region and around the countries...we know what interesting documents and photos we would like to take out on short term loan...we are also counting on the effects of our campaign "Share your story with us", which will utilise photos, documents, mementoes transferred to the museum by residents of Poznan.
A spontaneous military insurrection against German rule, the Uprising broke out during the visit of statesman and acclaimed pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski in Poznań on his way to Warsaw in December 1918, when Poles listened to his patriotic speech in the centre of the city.
“Only in this way will we be able to show the stories of local uprisings, skirmishes and local heroes who in the days of the Uprising reached for arms and went out by themselves to fight for freedom."
Terlecki is also keen to acquire certain unique exhibits, such as a famous altar which stood on the city's Independence Square and in front of which insurrectionists and soldiers of the Polish Army swore before God as well as a standard of the 1st Greater Poland Rifle Regiment in Poznań.
Germans organised a military parade in which they tore down Polish flags and attacked Polish institutions.
With a proposed opening date of 2026, the museum designed by Warsaw architectural studio WXCA is intended to keep alive the memories and mementos from the Uprising, amid concern that fewer and fewer people have knowledge of the event.
A spontaneous military insurrection against German rule, the Uprising broke out during the visit of statesman and acclaimed pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski in Poznań on his way to Warsaw in December 1918, when Poles listened to his patriotic speech in the centre of the city.
The Polish military retaliated and fought the Germans to try to regain territories which had been part of Poland before the first partition of Poland in 1772.
In response, the following day, the Germans organised a military parade in which they tore down Polish flags and attacked Polish institutions.
The Polish military retaliated and fought the Germans to try to regain territories which had been part of Poland before the first partition of Poland in 1772.
The insurrection ended with Polish victory after the French forced a ceasefire on the Germans at Trier in February 1919.
The insurrection ended with Polish victory after the French forced a ceasefire on the Germans at Trier in February 1919.
The Uprising also had a significant impact on decisions at the Treaty of Versailles, when Poland was granted the areas won by the Polish insurrectionists and the lands of the Polish corridor, which had been part of Poland before the first partition of Poland.
