It is famous as the place of the assassination of Leszek I the White, High Duke of Poland (November 23, 1227).

[3] In 1600 Gąsawa hosted the Lubrański Academy (Polish: Kolegium Lubrańskiego) which temporarily moved out of plague-stricken Poznań.

Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, it was occupied by Germany until 1945.

Existing wall paintings were covered with a layer of reed and ordinary plaster, and forgotten for some 150 years.

[6][7] At the local parish cemetery there are graves of fallen Polish insurgents of the Greater Poland uprising (1918–1919).