A natural branch of the Prosna River, which in the Middle Ages served as a moat and was the boundary of the chartered town and an element of its defensive system, and later was used by nearby factories. One of many natural branches and man-made canals of the Prosna River flowing through Kalisz. It was filled in during World War II (1941–1942) by the Germans, who used forced labor (prisoners of war and the last of the Jewish people still living in the city) for the project.

Photos

This branch of the Prosna, sometimes also called the "old river", after the walled fortifications were built around chartered Kalisz in the 14th and 15th centuries, functioned as a moat. After separating from the main river, it flowed through the park, and from the 19th century onward, it marked the natural boundary between the city center and the Piskorzewie district. In 1941–42, by decision of the German invaders, it was filled in. After the war, a 300-meter stretch of a green belt was created in its place. More information about the “Babinka” can be found on plaques near Kanonicka Street and in the City Park.

The choice of the site for the new chartered town in the mid-13th century was based on its natural defensibility, provided by the many branches and canals of the main river (over which dozens of bridges and crossings were later built). Their existence would eventually lead to Kalisz being occasionally referred to as the “Venice of the North.” Among those defensive watercourses was the branch later known as the Babinka. It originated, splitting off from the main river, opposite today’s theater building, and flowed as a wild stream through the park (in the second half of the 19th century, the stream was readjusted into a straight canal). In its further, now-filled section, starting from the 19th century, it again served as a natural boundary between the city center and the Piskorzewie district, the name of which comes from the loaches (Polish: piskorze) once caught in the Babinka.

Right next to the Babinka canal, on the city center side, were the most important Jewish public buildings, including the synagogue and the yeshiva. With the city's development, especially industrial activity in Piskorzewie, the canal gradually became a sewer and posed a health hazard to the residents. Already in 1911, in response to these hazards (and questionable aesthetics) resulting from the very poor water quality in the Babinka, the Polish Hygiene Society proposed a project to fill in the canal. By decision of the German occupation authorities, in 1941–1942, the canal was filled in using, among other things, rubble from the demolished "Great Synagogue," Jewish liturgical items, Torah scrolls, and thousands of books from Polish and Jewish libraries in the city. From 1946 to 1949, a 700-meter-long promenade called the "Planty Miejskie" was created on the former site of the Babinka.

Author of the text: Piotr Sobolewski

Photos: Archiwum Państwowe w Kaliszu - Project partner