It is a material evidence of the French emperor’s presence in Wielkopolska in 1807 and at the same time an expression of hope of the town’s inhabitants for the victorious course of the Russian campaign which started in 1812 and for the rebirth of independent Poland.

History of the structure

From 1231 until the end of the 18th century Ślesin was owned by the Poznań bishops, granted by Prince Konrad Mazowiecki. In 1358 Ślesin was granted municipal rights, but despite its favourable geographic location it did not develop and retained its rural character. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland, Ślesin found itself under Russian rule. It was only in the 19th century that the town started to slowly develop, based on trade. Eight fairs were held in the town each year, mainly cattle drives. At the end of the 19th century, the town specialized in trade and breeding of geese, which were exported to the nearby Prussian partition. In spite of losing its municipal rights in 1870 (they were restored in 1921) the town continued to develop. A peculiarity of the trade in cattle, geese and pigs at the end of the 19th century and during the interwar period was the use by local traders of a hermetic jargon called kmina ochweśnicka.

The Triumphal Arch in Ślesin was erected in 1812 according to the local tradition in honour of Napoleon Bonaparte. The benefactors intended the building to welcome the emperor during his expected passage through Ślesin after the end of the victorious Russian military campaign, as it was widely predicted. The war with Russia that began on 24 June 1812, known as the Second Polish War, ended with the defeat of the French army despite the capture of Moscow. Napoleon’s hasty return to France (having arrived in Warsaw on December 10, he immediately returned to Paris to form a new army) made it impossible to fulfil the wishes of his ceremonial passage under the Ślesin arch.

There are several hypotheses about the genesis and purpose of the building. Its founder is considered to be, among others, the then owner of the town and the estate in nearby Piotrowice - Walichnowski (Walkanowski?) of the Wieruszów coat of arms, whose intention was to erect an arch in honour of Frederick August I Wettin, the ruler of the Duchy of Warsaw established in 1806 by Napoleon. According to other accounts, the arch was to be dedicated to Napoleon’s brother, Admiral Jerome Bonaparte, a participant in the 1806 war with Prussia and later King of Westphalia.

The Triumphal Arch in Ślesin survived without damage for over one hundred and fifty years, until 1972, when it was heavily damaged by a truck. The building was demolished and rebuilt in 1976-77. After the 1972 collision, the traffic pattern was changed and since then only one southbound lane of the road runs through the central, main arcade, while the northbound lane bypasses it. In 2012, the arch was restored and repainted to its original sand colour (it had been blue from 1977 to 2011). On 16 September 2012, on the 100th anniversary of the Russian campaign, after a theatrical re-enactment of the Emperor’s passage through the arch by a historical reconstruction group, a bronze bust of Napoleon was unveiled in a nearby park on the shore of Ślesin Lake.

Description of the structure

The Triumphal Arch in Ślesin, called Napoleon’s Gate by the town’s inhabitants, is located in the western part of the town, by the road leading to Sompolno, near the Ślesin Channel connecting Ślesin Lake with Mikorzyński Lake. It was built of brick and plastered. It has the form of a semicircular closed arcade topped with the figure of the eagle of the Duchy of Warsaw, with two lower passages for pedestrians on the sides. The arcade openings are flanked by white lesenes, simplified to a geometric rectangular form, stylized as Ionic columns with volute-shaped capitals. In addition, the keystone of the central arcade arch was decorated with a small four-leaved rosette. On the western wall of the arch above the southern passage there is a plaque with the following inscription “TRIUMPHAL ARCH / BUILT / BY THE RESIDENTS / OF ŚLESIN IN 1812 / IN MEMORY OF NAPOLEON”.

Visitor access: The arch is accessible to visitors with the preservation of safety rules.

Author of the note: Tomasz Łuczak, 28.12.2017

Bibliography

• Maluśkiewicz P., Ziemia Konińska. Przewodnik turystyczny, Konin 2002, pp. 153-154.
• Maluśkiewicz P., Województwo konińskie, Warszawa-Poznań 1983, pp. 297-299
• Ślesin – łuk triumfalny, Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction, compiled by Jolanta Oblizajek, 2000, Archive of the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship Heritage Protection Officer in Poznań - Branch in Konin.
• Wielkopolska. Słownik krajoznawczy, ed. Łęcki Włodzimierz, Poznań 2002, p 227.
• http://napoleon.org.pl – accessed in December 2017