The county seat is on the Warta, about 100 km east of Poznań, on the way to Warsaw.
This is Konin’s earliest and best known historical landmark. The Romanesque stone post, commonly known as the “słup milowy” (the milepost), is made of sandstone from Brzeźno. This is the oldest road sign in Poland and one of the few remnants of medieval material culture in Europe. It was originally placed 52 km from both Kalisz and Kruszwica. It looks like a 2.5 m ninepin. A Latin inscription comprising four verses – each preceded by a sign of the cross – is carved on it. These read as follows:
The year of Our Lord 1151
This is roughly the halfway point from Kalisz to Kruszwica
The expression of method and justice indicates this
Which Komes Palatine Piotr bade be made here
And carefully halved this road
That every wayfarer would remember it
With a prayer beseeching gracious God.
This post is the source of many an enigma and the subject of scholarly debates and hypotheses. These concern such things as the person of the founder, the translation of the Latin text, and the origin and function of the pole. It is highly probable that it was put up in Pagan times and that the inscription was only etched in the middle of the 12th century. Jan Długosz mentions the Konin milepost, linking its foundation with Piotr Włost Włostowicz (Dunin).
The style of lettering used in the inscription served as the model for the inscriptions on the 19th-century sarcophagus of Mieszko I and Boleslaus the Brave in Pozań Cathedral.
St. Bartholomew’s parish church, Konin’s oldest place of worship, stands next to it.
Over time, the milepost has come to stand alongside the coat of arms as a symbol of the city.
