Szamotuły

The Gorka Family Castle – from XVth century, rebuilt in 1518 and once more in XIXth cent. Its interiors are home to a rich collections of furniture, pictures, ancient home equipment and to the biggest icon collection in western Poland. Entrance fees : 3,50 zloty regular, 2 zloty reduced.

The Halszka Tower – the remnant together with the moat of the former castle defence system. The name of the tower comes the name of pretty Halszka from Wolyn district nowadays : western Ukraine – according to tradition, Halszka married against her will the Greater Poland province master Lukasz Gorka, she disagreed to sexual life with him and preferred to spend 14 years in the tower. After his husband’s death she was freed, but soon she went crazy. Entrance fees like in the castle : 3,50 zloty regular, 2 zloty reduced.

The collegiate church of Our Lady of Consolation and St. Stanislaus the Bishop – the oldest and the most valuable monument in the city, as well one of the most important sacral places in the region, erected in the first half of XV cent. The decoration of the church consists of polychromies from 1952 and appr. one-hundred-year-old glass windows. In the interiors pay attention to the cross from appr. 1370, the stone sarcophagus of Jakub Rokossowski from the last years of XVIth century and a bronze commemorating plate of Andrzej Szamotulski – probably from the famous Vichers’ workshop in Nurmberg in Bavaria.

The Franciscan Monastery – erected at the end of XVIIth century using the fundaments of former mansion house of Szamotulski family. In XIXth cent, after the cancellation of most orders, the building was overtaken by the neighbouring church of the Holy Cross was closed till 1963, when a parish was the re-opened. The rococo interiors come from the end of XVIIth cent. The main element is the altar with a crucifix, figures of Our Lady Suffering, St. John the Baptist, monks and the picture of God the Father, Holy Spirit and angels. The monastery building are now undergoing renovating works.