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About the project

Greater Poland - an emigrant Europe

Greater Poland - An Emigrant Europe is a task implemented as part of the Culture Inspiring 2022-2023 programme, addressed to institutions subordinate to and supervised by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

Programme: Inspiring Culture 2022-2023

According to the programme's regulations, it constitutes:

"one of the foundations of the integrated system for the promotion of Polish culture abroad, a strategic project implemented as part of the government's Strategy for Responsible Development and coordinated by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in cooperation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The strategic goal of the programme is to promote the most valuable phenomena of Polish culture and its multicultural dimension on the international arena. The tasks realised within the framework of the programme should serve to create abroad a positive image of Poland as a modern country, aware of its contribution to European and world culture, and to deepen knowledge of the artistic and intellectual achievements of Poles among foreign recipients. (...) The involvement of subordinate and supervised institutions in the programme is intended to develop their potential, enable the initiation of new foreign contacts and strengthen the relations developed so far."

Task: Greater Poland - an emigrant Europe

Objectives and partners

As part of the Inspiring Culture programme, the National Museum in Poznań has proposed the establishment of an informal trail modelled on the cultural trails operating under the aegis of the Council of Europe. Its task is to recall and promote the merits of "Great Polish" emigrants in the peaceful shaping of modern Europe, while at the same time preserving their national identity and distinctiveness.

Linked by a joint educational and tourist programme, the network will include institutions associated with the activities of prominent Polish emigrants whose fates were linked to Wielkopolska. These include:

The National Museum in Poznan, as the entity responsible for the trail, sees this as a long-term task, allowing it to be extended with new partners, and also as a pilot task, opening up the possibility of creating similar trails, which would connect institutions from other regions of Poland with partners from other countries, including non-European countries.

In addition to the planned signage and information about the trail in the offices of the institutions involved in the project, the trail's primary information and education platform is the website www. Greater Poland - an emigrant Europe.

Knowledge trails

Educational trails linking the trail partners will be available in the form of online lessons and downloadable materials on the trail website, as well as education delivered during visits to the partners' premises.

The educational trails are intended to promote the peaceful, political-diplomatic and cultural achievements of the "Great Polish " emigrants in Europe, focusing on their biographies and the places and thoughts/ideas associated with them.

In this fascinating journey through time and space, we will show representatives of the nobility and aristocracy of Wielkopolska and Poland (Leszczyński, Raczyński, Działyński, Czartoryski, Branicki, Potocki, Rey, Krasiński, Gorziński, Chełkowski) and the world of culture (Mickiewicz, Niemcewicz, Krasiński, Norwid, Lenartowicz, Cieszkowski, Sienkiewicz, Kraszewski), bound together by blood, friendship and ideals.

We will talk about material evidence of their activities (Leszczyńskis: Gołuchów-Leszno-Rydzyna, Zweibrücken-Tschifflik, Nancy-Luneville; Raczyńskis: Rogalin - Berlin- London; Czartoryski and Działyński - Paris- Gołuchów; Branicki , Potocki, Krasiński, Rey - Montrésor- Paris-Rogalin) and their contribution to the preservation of national and European heritage (Leszczyński, Czartoryski, Branicki, Potocki, Rey, Raczyński).

We will show Poland as a source of inspiration in international politics and diplomacy (Stanisław Leszczyński, the Czartoryskis, the Raczyńskis), as well as literature (Mickiewicz, Niemcewicz, Krasiński, Norwid, Lenartowicz, Cieszkowski, Sienkiewicz).

Mutual promotion and cooperation

The proposed educational-tourist route showing the special achievements of Poles for the creation of identity and a common European heritage will be an excellent opportunity to promote the achievements of partner museum and non-museum institutions working to preserve and disseminate cultural heritage.

The task also opens the way for the exchange of museum, conservation, promotional and educational experiences and multidimensional research to organise joint exhibitions, conferences and other forms of cooperation.

Implementation of the task in 2022: study visits and revisits

As envisaged in the first year, a group of MNP staff visited:

This served the purpose of getting to know potential partner institutions, presenting the objectives of the trail and defining the scope of cooperation within the framework of the task undertaken. Future promotion of the task was facilitated by including representatives of local tourist organisations and the Polish Cultural Institute in London in the discussions. It was also possible to visit several other museums, to bring a portrait of Athanasius Raczyński donated by his family from Paris to the Rogalin palace, and to interview Mrs Katarzyna Raczyńska and reproduce archival material on pre-war furnishings in the Rogalin palace.

The results of the visits were compiled in a presentation sent to the partners and presented to a wide range of National Museum staff.

As part of a revisit held in autumn 2022 at the National Museum in Poznań and its residential branches, the achievements in the variety of renovation and reconstruction, conservation, research, educational and promotional activities undertaken were presented. Representatives of Wielkopolska, Poznań and Leszno tourism organisations, interested in supporting and promoting the trail, were also invited to the meeting concerning prospects for future cooperation. Further revisits are planned in the coming years, with the Lviv National Gallery, located in the city where King Stanislaw Leszczynski was born, already declaring its accession to the trail in the summer of 2022.

Completion of task in 2023: construction of website Greater Poland - an emigrant Europe

One of the main results of the project "Greater Poland - An Emigrant Europe" in 2023 is a bilingual website available at: wielkopolskaemigracyjna.eu

Tworzenie serwisu rozpoczęło się na początku 2023 r., a jego uruchomienie ma nastąpić do końca tego roku. Trzy najważniejsze etapy w tym procesie to:

The website makes it possible to showcase the institutions connected by the trail, both through the content it contains and the partner websites linked to it. The project involves the presentation of over a dozen sites located in Poland, Germany, France, the UK and Ukraine. Their promotion by means of a common trail will provide an opportunity to weave a multithreaded tale, the leitmotif of which is emigration in its broadest sense, connected to Wielkopolska and its contribution to Europe's achievements. This is intended to encourage both virtual and real visits to the institutions along the trail, which, aware of the value of the places and collections in their care, maintain them with great commitment for the public at large.

The website provides an opportunity for more institutions interested in co-creating the trail to join in, aware of its cognitive and popularising value, especially in times of growing interest in cultural tourism.

There are educational trails linking the trail partners. These will be available for use both during visits and as education delivered through online lessons and downloadable materials.

The websites created as part of the project (Polish and English versions) will be accessible without logging in. By accessing the site, the user will be able to, among other things:

Project funding

The task was funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the Culture Inspiring 2022-2023 programme.

Beneficiary: National Museum in Poznań

Strategic foreign partner: Polish Historical and Literary Society and Library (together with the Adam Mickiewicz Museum) in Paris

Patronage: Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in the French Republic

Country of implementation: Poland, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Ukraine

Total project cost: PLN 129,000