Wielkopolska Ethnographic Park

Dziekanowice (pronounced as Dzyekhanovitse) is a small village in Wielkopolskie Voivodship, in Poland, appr 16 km westwards of Gniezno and 40 km eastwards of Poznan . The village is on the area of Lednicki Landscape Park.

See

The most important attraction in the place is the Greater Poland Etnographic Park - a big open-air museum, one of the biggest in Europe. It presents village buildings from all over the region, mostly timber ones, from the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries. The museum, existing since 1982 (however formally established 7 years before) occupies the area of 20 hectares and presents more than 60 buildings (the final plans include 10 more). The surrounding also keeps rural character : numerous gardens, orchards, cattle pens, stockyards. The whole museum is divided into three parts : village, court and grange.

The sightseeing takes usually between 1 hour 30 minutes and 2 hours. It's the best to start the tour in the village, than stroll to the wind-mills, and from the passing by a chapel to the court of the village of Studzieniec. On the way some other attractions : the original XVIIIth-century equipment of an old smithy, interiors of a peasant's house, a hill with a magnificent view over the Lednickie Lake.

The most interesting exhibits in the Museum are :

• a timber croft from the surroundings of Kalisz from 1841
• a house from Godziesze Wielkie (as well surroundins of Kalisz), an example of the house fro the poorests
• an inn from Sokołowo (surroundings of Chodziez) wit a big distillery
• a church from Wartkowice from 1719, re-consecrated in 2001, occasional holy masses
• an Olender-croft from the vicinity of Nowy Tomysl – an example of Olender buildings in northern and western Greater Poland in XVIIIth century
• a chapel and cemetery – the temple originates from outside historical Greater Poland region (it’s from the surroundings of Torun ), it’s a gift of polish roman catholic church Primat, cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, for the museum. Inside : a baroque altar from XVIIIth cent; around the church : some graves and cemetery crosses.
• a copy of the court from Studzieniec (50 km nort of Poznan) from the Ist half of XVOOOth cent. Inside you can find a small exhibition presenting an everyday life of noble families in the period between the world wars.

Tickets : the museum is open from early spring (in 2009 from February 15th) till autumn (in 2009 till the end of October). A ticket for the Ethnographic Park costs 8 zloty (reduced : 4), but a combined ticket from the museum and form Ostrow Lednicki  : 12 and 6 respectively.