The foundation of the city of Kórnik is usually dated by historians back to the middle of the fifteenth century. The recently discovered documents relating to the establishment of the local parish church in 1437 permit us to date this event shortly before that year. The city was established by Nicholas of Górka, chancellor of the Poznań cathedral chapter, who made his family powerful and influential in the province. Around 1423 he had to litigate with some of his relatives and lost interest in his hometown of Miejska Górka. Therefore he decided to establish a new complex of landed properties with their new seat in Kórnik. He purchased several surrounding villages, rebuilt the already existing castle and established a new town. These events were also combined with vast changes in the local environment. It was exactly at this time that Kórnik was transferred to its current location east of the lake. The original village was certainly located somewhere else, on the opposite side of the lake, where in the beginnings of the seventeenth century local people still indicated a place commonly called the “Old Village”. The new little town, located close to Poznań and just west of Bnin, did not have a chance to develop and prosper, and Kórnik remained a settlement functioning in the shadows of the magnate’s castle. The article was supplemented by the edition of the only existing page of a medieval city register containing notes made in the years 1483-1486 as well as the testimonies of several witnesses to litigation over the tithes in 1603, who expressed interesting opinions on reconstructing the local topography.

Łukasz Górka (1481/1482-1542) belonged to the noble family of the Łodzia coat of arms. In the 15th century, lords from Górka (Miejska) held high offices and accumulated vast estates. Łukasz was possibly the most rich land owner in Poland, as well as the leading figure from the magnate faction, opposing the political aspirations of masses of noblemen. He was thought to be a ruthless money grabber and stories have it that it was out of his greed that towards the end of his life he left his secular career to become the bishop of Włocławek. However, he did not spare funds for representational purposes. He extended his castles (Kórnik, Szamotuły) and founded many pious works of art. Some of the works he ordered have survived, including a fragment of a triptych showing the scene of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although its original purpose remains unidentified, it was most probably ordered for the family chapel of the Górkas in the Poznan cathedral.