Wielkopolska Military Museum
The Wielkopolska Military Museum is the oldest institution of its kind in Poland: the official opening took place on October 27, 1919. However, the museum’s collections were lost in the 1939 September Campaign marking the beginning of World War II. Restored in 1963, it has, to date, gathered together tens of thousands of exhibits mainly from former soldiers, their families and collectors. Today’s exhibition presents the history of Polish and European arms: weapons, protective armament, insignia, uniforms and ordnance. It is adorned with battle paintings, including the most impressive fragment of the « Battle of the Pyramids » by Wojciech Kossak from 1901 – one of the few objects that survived from the pre-war collection. The pride of the collection is also the woven chainmail of the city’s cavalry captain from 1580, decorated with the Poznań coat of arms. The museum has the country’s largest collection of museum exhibits related to the Wielkopolska Uprising of 1918-1919 and the Wielkopolska Army.