MARGONIN
Margonin is a town situated in Chodzież Lake District, by the Margonińskie Lake – one of Wielkopolska’s largest and providing excellent conditions for the local tourist hub. The town’s name is explained by a romantic legend of a Teutonic knight named Margo who fell in love with a lovely girl named Nina and kidnapped her from her family burg-city, mounting a bear. Margo set up his own settlement on the lake, which was named Margonin after him. The tale is commemorated with an image of a woman riding on bearback featured in today’s crest of the town.
History
East of the Margonińskie Lake are two cone-formed settlements – a preserved testimony to early settlements in this land. The town was incorporated on a private basis in ca. 1402, and re-incorporated in 1696 following wartime destruction caused by the Swedish invasion and elemental disasters.
The eighteenth century brought about a definite revival, owing to the development of clothmaking industry. The First Partition of Poland (1772) caused incorporation of Margonin into Prussia.
January 6, 1919 marked the town’s seizure by Welkopolska Insurgents, but it was not until a year later that it got completely liberated by 6th Infantry Regiment of the Polish Army. The Nazi occupation over, the desired-for freedom was finally regained in January 1945. Today, Margonin is a tourist as well as farming-and-services hub.
Worth Seeing
Late-baroque St. Adalbert’s church: a three-nave hall-form temple, rebuilt, after being destroyed in the latter 18th century half, by its founder Countess Anna Ciecierska, nee Malechowska. A classicist belfry from late 18th/early 19th c. stands next to the church.
The 1.5 km-long linden alley triggers real enchantment among the nature lovers: planted over two centuries ago, it is the only so numerous grouping of almost three hundred lime-trees considered nature monuments in Europe.
You can walk, ride or drive along it from Margonin the town to the village of Margońska-Wieś where a neo-gothic palace is to be seen. The palace’s turret comprises a commemorative chamber dedicated to Józef Wybicki, the author of the lyrics of the Polish national anthem.