OBORNIKI
Oborniki is a county town situated on the Warta river and by the Wełna estuary (the river discharging to the Warta), ca. 30 km north of Poznań. North of Oborniki, the Notecka Primeval Forest spreads. Owing to the area’s ideal microclimate, therapeutic facilities are deployed not far from the town.
History
In the first Piast dynasty rulers’ time, a burg-city was located there which fortified the passage set through the Warta and Gniezno at the north. Although the locality is first mentioned in a source dated 1292, Oborniki gained their municipal rights only in the former half of 14th century. It is worth mentioning that Oborniki-born Piotr Wedelicki was among the court physicians to King Sigismund I the Old (Zygmunt Stary; 1467–1548).
Following the 2nd Partition of Poland in 1793, Oborniki became part of the Prussian state’s territory. The town was for a short time made part of the Duchy of Warsaw (in 1807–1815). After the fall of Napoleon, the western invader reabsorbed the town under its rule.
2nd half of 19th century saw the start-up of Poznań–Piła railway connection, with Oborniki being a station on the route. The day before the outbreak of the Wielkopolska Uprising (1918–1919), Ignacy-Jan Paderewski (1860–1941), the outstanding piano virtuoso, composer and Prime Minister-to-be, made his way through Oborniki. On 4th January 1919, the town was liberated in the course of the then-ongoing warfare. During the Nazi occupation (1939–1945) many Oborniki locals were resettled to the Generalgouvernement or sent away into the depths of the Reich to do coerced labour there. The town was liberated on 24th/25th January 1945.
Today, Oborniki is an industrial and services centre.
Worth Seeing
North-west of the marketplace, you will come across the church of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven. This originally gothic temple, built in 15th century, was rebuilt into the present-day shape in 1814, with a single side nave.
In Obrzycka St., you can see a unique wattle-and-daub Holy Cross church of 1766. While in Lipowa St., you will definitely notice a neo-gothic former Evangelical St. Joseph’s church of 1900, with a 90m-high tower.
Along a one-kilometre-long section of the Wełna, as it goes across the town, is an ichthyologic reserve called ‘Słonawy’, famous for its abundance of fish species – incl. asp, trout and bullhead, to name just a few.
