Every design for Śrem

Śrem began at a ford across the Warta, guarded by a fortified settlement in the cradle of the early Polish state, on the trade route from Silesia to Poznań. A trading settlement grew up on the opposite bank, and the town received its municipal rights in the same year as Poznań. It counts among the oldest Lechitic settlements in the country.

Today Śrem lies south of Poznań, at the point where the river swings sharply from east–west to north–south. Its older streets sit low in the valley of the Kotlina Śremska, while newer neighbourhoods climb onto the plateau above. The town has always been proudly Polish: Józef Wybicki, author of the words of the national anthem, became an honorary citizen, it sheltered a hospital for insurgents in the Greater Poland uprising, and in the uprising that followed the First World War the German garrison surrendered without a fight. The Muzeum Śremskie and the Park Miejski im. Powstańców Wielkopolskich keep that story close.

If you grew up here, your map is the river bend, the walk along the Promenada and the summer beach on the lake. You do not need street names to find your way.