Gniezno city – Gniezno

Fact of the Polish figure „Polish national myths – Gniezno Cathedral”

Part of the „The story of the beginning” topic

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For Poles, Gniezno is laden with rich symbolism. For the city is not only present in the oldest Polish plots as, nomen omen, the nest (pol. gniazdo) of the Piast dynasty, with which Poles live in spiritual communion, but also concentrates social imagery towards it, concerning the beginnings of the Polish state. The location of St. Adalbert’s tomb in Gniezno and the pilgrimage undertaken by Otto III made this city not only the coronation place of Polish kings, but also the center of the cultural community of Poles, whose action we can observe in the 12th and 15th centuries. For first, the memory of Adalbert was a unifying factor for the country of the Piasts, which was torn apart by conflicts, and later the crown that Boleslaw was to receive from the Emperor at the time was an argument for the Polish side in litigation with the Teutonic Order. Today Gniezno functions in Polish memory as the first capital of the country, from which its thousand-year history began. This was best demonstrated by the great celebration of the millennium of the Polish state in 1966 and the celebration of the millennium of Boleslaw the Brave’s coronation in 2025.