Over two years before the inauguration of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, the Poznan Municipal Stadium is about to be commissioned. This is the first stadium at which football players will be fighting for the Championship title in 2012. An official opening ceremony, which will take place as soon as September the 20th, will be graced by the presence of Sting, who will give a concert.

Some wanted it to be destroyed, others regarded it as an architectural curiosity and a tourist attraction. The Imperial Castle in Poznan celebrates the hundredth anniversary of its construction. Built as the most far eastern residence of the German Emperor and King of Prussia, today it is a thriving cultural centre.

The castle was built in the years 1905-1910 by German Emperor Wilhelm II. In the interwar era, it became the seat of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan as well as a residence of the Polish presidents. During the Second World War, it was transformed into one of Adolf Hitler’s residences. For over a dozen years after the war, it also served as the seat of Poznan’s authorities. Today, the castle houses the ‘Zamek’ Culture Centre, one of the country’s greatest institutions involved in the promotion of culture.

On July the 31st, 1880 - precisely 130 years ago - the city’s first horse tram service began operation. Its first line ran from the railway station to the Old Market Square.

When the first horse tram line was opened in Poznan, the city’s first tram depot with a service workshop was also commissioned and the city’s public transport quickly won people’s hearts. No wonder then, that the first line was quickly lengthened to reach the Ostrów Tumski district in the vicinity of the cathedral. Shortly after that, the second horse tram line was opened, while in 1891, the first horse-pulled omnibuses were put into operation, bringing the city’s inhabitants to suburban holiday resorts. By 1898, the first electric trams could already be seen in the streets of Poznan. Initially, they operated on the same routes as the horse trams, yet with the development of the city at the beginning of the 20^th century, subsequent lines were opened.