In central Poland, on the Warta River, on the ancient amber trail, Konin is located - an ancient stronghold with a horse's coat of arms in the background. Close to everywhere.
The city is crossed by the national road connecting Poznań with Warsaw and the national road from Bydgoszcz to Ostrów Wielkopolski. The Berlin-Moscow motorway runs right next to the southern border of Konin. Konin is also an important railway junction that is part of the international route Berlin-Moscow.
With a horse in the coat of arms
The name of the city is best explained by an old legend about Prince Leszek, who once wandered into this area alone and was attacked by forest tar makers. The prince would have died at the hands of his attackers, but then the sound of horses' hooves was heard. The tarers fled as quickly as possible convinced that a bodyguard was coming to the rescue. It turned out to be a herd of horses grazing in mid-forest clearings.
Leszek's gratitude to the animals was so great that he founded the city of Konin here, and put a horse in his coat of arms.
One of the most valuable monuments of Konin is the Gothic church of St. Bartholomew, built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There is a famous pillar next to the historic church - considered to be the oldest road sign in Poland.
Made of sandstone, a two and a half meter high obelisk with a cylindrical shape is marked with a Latin inscription. The inscription says that the pole was set up in 1151 by Komes Piotr, exactly halfway between Kalisz and Kruszwica.
Konin has been along the famous Amber Route for centuries. It is puzzling, however, why so much trouble was taken just to mark the halfway point between two old castles. Some suppose that the inscription was made on a pole standing in this place since pagan times. Some see a similarity between the Konin Pillar and the so-called Monk, found near Ślęża and considered a Celtic monument.
The Konin Słup, also known as the mile square, stands on the square in the old part of the city. The inscription engraved on it consists of four verses preceded by the sign of the cross. The typeface of the letters served as a model for the inscriptions on the sarcophagus of Mieszko I and Bolesław the Brave in the Poznań cathedral.
Land of warm lakes
It is worth visiting the vicinity of Konin not only because of this historic pole. Here, away from the hustle and bustle of fashionable holiday resorts, you can experience the adventure of a traveler and history researcher.Cultural monuments scattered around the area date back to the traces of the earliest settlement, while sailing and canoeing enthusiasts have at their disposal numerous lakes forming a wonderful water route connected by river passes, canals and locks. Lake Mikorzyńskie, together with Wąsowski and Ślesiński, forms a waterway that runs north through Lake Czarne and the Ślesiński Channel, where it joins the waters of Gopło and leads directly to Kruszwica.
However, if we head south through Pątnowskie Lake and the Morzysławski Canal, we will reach Konin itself. This system of lakes and canals is still not very popular among Polish tourists, but it is a really perfect place for those seeking peace and quiet by the water. Here and there, right on the shores of narrow and long lakes, there are holiday resorts. Important information for thermophilic people - these lakes have a much higher temperature than other natural reservoirs, because their waters constitute the so-called distant cooling circuit of the "Pątnów" and "Konin" power plants. Konin's lakes are also a real paradise for anglers. Bream predominate in them.
Those who do not feel strong enough to sail on the lakes by themselves in a canoe or a sailboat can admire the surrounding lakes from the deck of a passenger ship with the sonorous name "Dziwożona".