Poznan, a half-a-million city in western Poland, is located at the crossroad of the largest European transportation routes connecting Moscow with Berlin as well as Paris and Madrid, Budapest and Prague with the Baltic coast and farther on with the Scandinavian Peninsula. This location of the city, which favors the coexistence of many nationalities and cultures, was conducive to Poznan being an important meeting place in Central Europe.

The region is the cradle of Polish statehood. The city of Poznan is where the oldest Polish cathedral is situated (968) together with the tombs of the first sovereigns of Poland. Many events important for the history of Poland and Europe took place in Poznan, such as the Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919) that brought Poznan and most of the region back to newly reborn Poland or so called ‘Poznan June of 1956’, a mass protest of workers at the city’s Cegielski locomotive factory that developed into a series of strikes and protests throughout Poland against the policies of the communist regime.

Poznan is located on both banks of the Warta River. Its residential and industrial districts are divided by two stretches of green areas. The north-south line features the bed of the Warta River with many parks and wetlands, while the east-west line features areas around the Cybina Valley and Lake Malta – east of Poznan and the Bogdanka Valley and Lake Kierskie – in the west of Poznan. These naturally formed green areas give the city a star like shape and are an exceptional city planning and spatial solution. Green areas uptake almost one third of the city area and Morasko – where the Adam Mickiewicz University campus is located – is one of the two natural reserves within the borders of the city.