Święty Marcin ("Saint Martin"), in full ''ulica Święty Marcin'' ("Saint Martin Street"), is a main central street in the city of

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

in western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It runs from south of the old town district, westwards past the church of St.

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours (; 316/3368 November 397) was the third bishop of Tours. He is the patron saint of many communities and organizations across Europe, including France's Third French Republic, Third Republic. A native of Pannonia (present-day Hung ...

from which it takes its name, past the " Zamek" (former German imperial palace), to Adam Mickiewicz Square, and finally to University Bridge ''(Most Uniwersytecki)'', by which it crosses the railway line and leads to the

roundabout A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...

called ''Rondo Kaponiera''. On Adam Mickiewicz square is a statue of Polish poet

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He also largely influenced Ukra ...

, as well as a monument to the victims of the Poznań popular protests of 1956 (erected in 1981). On the left of the square are the central buildings of

Adam Mickiewicz University Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam si ...

Tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

s run along most of the length of the street, from Rondo Kaponiera to Aleje Karola Marcinkowskiego, in both directions at the western end, and eastwards only east of Gwarna. The area around St. Martin's church was originally a separate settlement outside the medieval walled city of Poznań. It was brought within the city boundaries in 1797, at the beginning of the period of

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

rule, and the street began to be laid out soon after that. It was named ''St. Martin Strasse'' in German (later, during the Nazi occupation, it was called ''Martin-strasse''). Following the building of the

19th-century fortifications The 19th century began on 1 January 1801 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 (MCM). It was the 9th century of the 2nd millennium. It was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolished in ...

around Poznań, the street led to the Berlin Gate, the main western entrance to the city. The imperial palace and other grand buildings in its vicinity were built following the demolition of this fortified line in the early 20th century. In the communist period the street was renamed ''ulica Armii Czerwonej'', meaning "

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

Street". On St. Martin's Day, 11 November (a public holiday on account of its being Polish Independence Day), a parade passes along this street, from St. Martin's Church to the Imperial Castle, where a fair and entertainments take place. Saint Martin's

croissant A croissant (, ) is a French cuisine, French pastry in a crescent shape made from a laminated yeast dough similar to puff pastry. It is a buttery, flaky, ''viennoiserie'' pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian cuisine, Austrian ''Kifli, ...

(''rogal świętomarciński''), widely known for its delicious taste, is traditionally baked in Poznań for this day and sold also in other cities in Poland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swiety Marcin Poznań Tourist attractions in Poznań