Kalisz is one of the oldest towns in Poland. Although it was granted city rights in the 13th century, it is identified with Calisia described by Ptolemy, and the remains of settlements and forts discovered in its area date back to the 6th century.
The city was the seat of the princes ruling this part of Greater Poland during the period of district disintegration. In the local collegiate church of St. Paul, Prince Mieszko Stary and other princes from the Greater Poland Piast line were buried. In the place where Kalisz was located at that time, there is now the Kaliski Gród Piastowski park, an open-air archaeological museum with a reconstruction of the then settlement. On its premises, you can also see a model of the Romanesque collegiate church of St. Paul.
Although Kalisz has a very long history, there are not many monuments here. The city was almost completely destroyed during the firing of World War I in 1914. Fragments of the city walls with the Dorothy Tower and the Gothic cathedral of St. Nicholas the Bishop. The buildings of the market square and the Town Hall were rebuilt in the interwar period based on Renaissance models.
The main city museum is the District Museum of the Kalisz Region, presenting the history of the entire region from prehistoric times to the present day. The Center for Drawing and Graphics is also located here. Tadeusz Kulisiewicz located in the former Jesuit college.
