Święty Marcin

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 River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

in western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

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

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours ( la, Sanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the ...

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 is a type 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 junction.''The New Shorter Oxford Eng ...

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. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

, 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; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

Tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

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: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

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 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 (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

Street". On St. Martin's Day, 11 November (a public holiday on account of its being

Polish Independence Day National Independence Day ( pl, Narodowe Święto Niepodległości) is a national day in Poland celebrated on 11 November to commemorate the anniversary of the restoration of Poland's sovereignty as the Second Polish Republic in 1918 from the ...

), 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 buttery, flaky, Austrian viennoiserie pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian kipferl but using the French yeast-leavened laminated dough. Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape, the dough is layered wi ...

(''rogal świętomarciński''), widely known for its delicious taste, is traditionally baked in Poznań for this day and sold also in other cities in Poland. {{DEFAULTSORT:Swiety Marcin Poznań Tourist attractions in Poznań