Poznan in Poland holds a lot of history. Cathedral Island was the site of the most powerful fortified settlement in the 10th century and the city was also believe to once been the capital of the Polish state.
To learn more about this gorgeous city in Poland, we visited the Porta Posnania museum to take in a bit of history in this incredibly beautiful attraction.
Porta Posnania
Porta Posnania is an interactive presentation set up to educate visitors on the rich history of the area. Porta Posnania is located on Cathedral Island and is right at the heart of the oldest part of the city.
Audio Guide
On arrival you can choose between three different tours. They are individual tours, family and group tours and they are all lead by audio guides. We were very impressed that they cater well for children of all ages. Our children were able to get an audio guide set and even our youngest had a special smaller set of headphones.
While touring the presentations there are special smiley faces that the kids touch with their audio guide. Once they do this the kid friendly version of the information is then heard on the audio guide and sometimes images will appear on the screen.
Areas of Discovery
There are three different floors with several different interactive areas. There is also a special kids area on each level and the kids would run to find it and spend their time learning and playing.
The Settlement
We learnt about the early settlers and discovered what Cathedral Island used to look like back then. The kids interactive area was intriguing. There was a model of what the first settlement looked like and the kids could look up through peep holes to discover each section. As they put their heads in the holes the history and stories of the settlement would automatically play.
The Water Room
In this room we learnt about Christianity and Catholicism coming to Poland. Water signified baptism and there were some pretty hi-tech illusions with the water theme. We walked around different touch screens to learn about the significance of this event in the history of Poznan and Poland.
The Gold Room
This floor depicts the Golden Age, or the Renaissance era. It has a replica of the Golden Chapel and it was really beautiful. Here we learnt the history in the 19th century, which included the Polish losing their independence.
The kid's area has two interactive dress-up screens where my children enjoyed dressing in costumes from the Golden Age.
The Stained Glass Room
This last area of Porta Posnania depicts the last one hundred (or so) years and everything that has happened on the island during this time. We saw the devastation of World War 2 and the rebuilding of the cathedral.
Everything is brought together to highlight that even though many bad things have happened over the years that Poznan has used these things to become a stronger and more unified city.
Was Porta Posnania Worth It?
We were highly impressed with Porta Posnania. The interactive displays were excellent for engaging the children and the kids specific areas were lots of fun.
As you cross the skywalk after your visit to Porta Posnania you can visit many of the places that you learnt about.
We enjoyed making history come to life as we visited the cathedral and other things we had learnt about that day.
We'd like to thank our friends at the city of Poznan for their assistance during our stay. As always, all opinions are our own.
