Discover Złotów: City History and Lake Miejskie

Architecture and Memorial Sites

The Działyński Palace was built at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries in the neoclassical style, with landscaped grounds. In the 1830s, at the initiative of the Hohenzollerns, it was remodelled to a design by the Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The palace thus combines its neoclassical origins with a later redesign. Beside the former Protestant Church of St. Stanislaus Kostka stands a red-brick building that housed the former court, dating from 1866.

Two cemeteries lie beside the Neo-Gothic Church of St. Roch, built in 1904: a disused Protestant cemetery with a lapidarium established in 1998, and a military cemetery for soldiers who fell in the 1945 battles for the Złotowszczyzna region. The building at 5 Domańskiego Street also tells the story of a former institution: dating from 1905, it has an Art Nouveau façade and housed the headquarters of the Fifth District of the Union of Poles in Germany.

The town hall was built in 1914 to a design by Adolf Behr. The outline of the synagogue destroyed in 1938 is marked in Paderewski Square. This marked outline makes the site another point of reference for the town’s history.

Art, Collections and City History

The Church of the Assumption of Mary contains the altarpiece “Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” painted by Paulus Hack in 1666. The Museum of the Złotów Region has archaeological, historical and ethnographic collections relating to the town and its surroundings. Less than half of the holdings are on display. In this way, a single dated work of art and the museum’s broader collections offer different ways of engaging with art and the past.

The Piast Kołodziej Monument has stood in front of the county administration building since 1957 and is described as the only one of its kind in Poland. Together with the marked outline of the synagogue and the historic buildings, it adds to the ways of experiencing the town’s history not only through collections, but also through places and monuments.

Routes by the Water and Through Zwierzyniec

The 4 km walking and cycling promenade runs along Lake Miejskie, which covers about 47 hectares; you can walk or cycle around the lake. The promenade leads to the Rybacki Peninsula. There you will find a plant maze and information boards about the town’s history, the noble families who ruled in Złotów, and archaeological finds. The promenade also features a wooden footbridge over the Głomia and a viewing platform overlooking the town.

Five educational trails marked with information boards run through Zwierzyniec Park: Poznawcza, Żabia, Łowiecka, Leśna and Dendrologiczna. Since 2016, part of the “Zielony Punkt Kontrolny” orienteering course has also run through the park. If you would like to choose between different routes when planning your day, you will find the educational trails within the park and, following a different route, the Złotów Stag Trail: with nine stops and twelve information boards, it leads through the Old Town towards Zwierzyniec. Zwierzyniec is a park-like woodland and recreation complex, as well as the seat of the Złotów Forest District. The routes therefore differ in their course: five educational trails are located in the park, while the trail connects stops and information boards in the Old Town with Zwierzyniec as its destination.

Discover more destinations: Skórka, Głomsk, Zakrzewo, Jastrowie, Łąkie, Okonek, Radawnica

See the main travel overview: Flatow.