Imagine you travelled in time to the late 19th century. You enter a small village, somewhere in Wielkopolska. People are chatting in front of wooden cottages, regular metallic sound is coming from blacksmith’s shop, someone’s making a wicker basket. All this you can witness on your own in the Wielkopolska Ethnographic Park i Dziekanowice. The place is a fully reconstructed village, including cottages, farm buildings, blacksmith’s shop, church, windmills and even an inn.

Wielkopolska Ethnographic Park is an open air museum, designed to look like a real village from the turn of 19th and 20th century. Most of the constructions are real old-timers, moved from other places in Wielkopolska. That includes not only the buildings themselves, but also furniture and other belongings – even some cute knick-knacks.

The park is best to visit during one of the many events. Then the village comes back to life, with historical reenactors strolling the place, working in the workshops, making butter, baking bread or weaving clothes. Also, often there is a market, where you can buy traditional food, bio fruits and vegetables, hand-made decorations and jewelry or even home-made spirits.

The museum is open daily excluding Mondays.

Text: Jacek Cieślewicz