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Important before you go
The island is open to visitors from 12 April to 31 October 2026. From November to the beginning of April it is closed.
History
Just before 966 Mieszko I built a stone palace (palatium) on the island, joined to a chapel, and a separate church. At the end of the 1980s archaeologists uncovered the bowls of baptismal pools in the ruins.
Wooden bridges linked the island with the shore on the road from Poznań to Gniezno. In 1038 the stronghold was destroyed by the invasion of the Czech duke Bretislav I. It was later surrounded by a new rampart, which survives to this day and is up to 9 metres high.
Since 1969 the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica has operated here, and since 1994 the island has been a Historic Monument of Poland. It is the setting of “The Old Tale” (Stara baśń) by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski.
What to see
The ruins of the palatium with its chapel and of the stronghold church, and the ramparts of the former stronghold.
Close by, in Dziekanowice, is the Greater Poland Ethnographic Park, an open-air museum of old village buildings. It belongs to the same museum, has the same hours and separate tickets.
Good to know
You reach the island by ferry, which runs every half hour during opening hours. The last ferry to the island leaves 40 minutes before closing.
Tickets are sold until 45 minutes before closing, and tickets with an audio guide until an hour before closing. The ticket office closes for a break Tue–Fri 12:30–12:50, and at weekends and on public holidays 13:30–13:50.
On Wednesdays admission is free. Parking is free.
