The Polish Theatre in Poznań was built in 1875 after several years of efforts to obtain the approval of the Prussian government. It was a form of resistance against the policy of the Prussian partition authorities who in 1868 passed a law on the need to obtain permission to exhibit plays in languages other than German. The design of the building was inspired by the Italian Renaissance. The theatre had the character of the National Stage under the Prussian partition. Originally the name was the Polish Theatre in Potocki Garden in Poznań.Bolesław Potocki donated his garden to the company that built the theatre. The building was erected in the yard of an existing tenement house, which was later demolished. The construction was funded by donations, so the building bears the inscription The Nation Unto Itself .Plays in the theatre were staged in Polish, which is why it played an important role in preserving Polishness.Since 1925, the abbreviated name the Polish Theatre in Poznań has been in use. During the interwar period, when the theatre competed with other stages in Poland, a vestibule was added. After World War II, the theatre resumed its activity and was considered one of the most interesting theatres in Poland. It is now a drama theatre. It has the oldest rotating stage in Poland and one of the oldest in Europe. This is a manually operated stage - for it to start rotating, technical workers need to enter the platform and hold the special handles to start spinning. Since the 1990s the mechanism has no longer been used. It is currently a drama theatre and has 4 stages: The Main Stage,Malarnia Stage, the Gallery Stage and the Basement below the Stage.
