St. Prokop’s Church, a rotunda whose layout is more elaborate than those of other prominent arrangements of this type, also dates back to the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. The nave has a round plan and is adjoined by a round tower from the west and a square presbytery from the east. The church is made of large granite blocks of varying hues except for the top, Gothic part of the tower, which is made of brick. The cupola of the nave and the early-Romanesque groin vault of the presbytery are made of thin brick tiles. This was probably the first time bricks were used in Poland.
The Romanesque collegiate Church of St. Peter and Paul in Kruszwica is monumental despite its rather modest proportions. It was erected in the early 12th century and made of cut granite and sandstone. It was built as a basilica with a sharply pronounced transverse nave. The building is characterised by its semi-circular apses which complement the transept and its annexes. The Romanesque portals on the north side of the church are austere and restrained while the western façade is graced with a tower (the church used to have two towers).
The Romanesque church erected in the village of Stare Miasto (Konin County) at the beginning of the 13th century now serves as the chapel of the neo-Gothic St. Peter and Paul Church. The Romanesque presbytery and part of the nave, made of sandstone blocks, have been preserved. The Romanesque portal is especially impressive with its bas-relief of the Crucifixion on the tympanum. Other well preserved Romanesque components in this part of the region can be found in churches in Kazimierz Biskupi (Konin County) and Kościelec (Koło County).
The Church of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kotłów (Ostrzeszów County) is the most impressive single-nave Romanesque church in Wielkopolska. Only the one nave is left after later subsequent reconstructions. The rest of the stonework on the eastern quoins of the nave evidences the existence of cyboria in the church – a rarity in Polish Romanesque altar baldachin architecture.
Excavations at the site of the former Cistercian monastery near Łekno (Wągrowiec County) have uncovered the foundations of an 11th-century pre-Romanesque rotunda and a later Romanesque church. Remains of Romanesque buildings have also been found in churches in Czerwona Wieś (Kościan County), Dzierzbin (Kalisz County), Królików (Konin County) and Rąbiń (Kościan County). The portal on the facade of the St. John of Jerusalem Church in Komandoria, Poznań, probably the oldest brick house of worship in Poland, uses Romanesque elements repeatedly.
The sculpture accompanying Romanesque architecture is no less marvellous. In addition to furnishing buildings, medieval sculpture was meant to inform and educate. As most people could neither read nor write, sculptures rich in content could present contemporary knowledge and reveal the truth about God and the faith. Sculptors, who liked to express their ideas with the aid of human and animal figures, were referred to as “masters of living stone” and their works “literature of the illiterate”.
The Gniezno Doors in the cathedral were cast in bronze and are now one of the most important treasures of Romanesque plastic arts in Europe. The doors were most likely made in Poland around 1170 and influenced by Mosan art, but their creator remains unknown. They stand out on account of their ideological record as well as their artistic merit. Each door has nine bas-reliefs with figurative scenes. The left door depicts the life of St. Wojciech (Adalbert) before he came to Poland. The right door portrays his missionary activities and martyr’s death.
A ninepin-shaped post, probably made of Brzeźno sandstone, stands in the square outside Bartholomew’s Church in Konin. The post is 252 cm tall and, according to its Latin inscription, was placed almost halfway between Kalisz and Kruszwica in the year of our Lord 1151. This makes it the oldest road sign in Poland and one of Wielkopolska’s few secular Romanesque monuments.
