Masuria, the land of a thousand lakes

The land of a thousand lakes

Masuria has more than 2,000 lakes, carved out by glaciers. There is one behind every hill, between the fields, the pine forests and the red-brick villages. The small roads run under long avenues of trees. Storks nest on the poles.

In the centre, the Great Lakes follow one another, linked by canals, from Giżycko to Mikołajki, the sailing port. They run from Lake Mamry, in the north, to Lake Śniardwy, the largest in Poland. In Giżycko, a swing bridge from 1898 is turned by hand to let the boats through. To the south, the road crosses the Pisz Forest to Ruciane-Nida.

The most surprising moment comes on the Elbląg Canal. At the Buczyniec inclined plane, boats leave the water and cross the hill on carriages pulled by a cable, along rails. A large water wheel does all the work.

The bishops and their chapter left brick castles: Lidzbark Warmiński, their residence, Reszel and Olsztyn. Copernicus ran Olsztyn castle. A canon at Frombork, he wrote there the book that puts the Sun at the centre of the universe, and he is buried there. His grave, found in the cathedral, was confirmed by DNA.

Around Warmia, the land belonged to the Teutonic Order, which built Ryn castle. The Order was defeated at Grunwald, in 1410, by the Poles and the Lithuanians. The battlefield is less than an hour from Olsztyn. In 1525, the last Grand Master turned the Order’s lands into a Protestant duchy: Prussia.

East Prussia and the war

Until 1945, the whole region was part of German East Prussia. In the Gierłoż forest, near Kętrzyn, Hitler set up his headquarters, the Wolfsschanze, the ‘Wolf’s Lair’. He spent more than 800 days there between 1941 and 1944. On 20 July 1944, Colonel von Stauffenberg’s bomb went off there without killing him. The Germans blew up the bunkers in January 1945.

Sztynort, half an hour away, is also linked to the plot. The owner of the palace, Heinrich von Lehndorff, had taken part in it; he was hanged in Berlin on 4 September 1944. After the war, most of the German inhabitants had to leave, replaced by Poles who often came from the East.

What not to miss

1. 1The Buczyniec inclined planeThe museum and the engine room, with the water wheel that pulls the boats.
2. 2Frombork hillThe fortified cathedral where Copernicus lies, above the Vistula Lagoon.
3. 3Boyen FortressA 19th-century Prussian fort on the isthmus between two lakes, in Giżycko.
4. 4The Łuknajno reserveA shallow lake that is home to up to 2,000 swans, a Unesco biosphere reserve since 1976.
5. 5PranieThe forester’s lodge where the poet Gałczyński spent his summers, on the shore of Lake Nidzkie.
6. 6The Krutynia and WojnowoA slow river under the trees, to float down in a punt from Krutyń; close by, Wojnowo has a monastery of Russian Old Believers.

Masuria in pictures

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Frombork cathedral on its hill, above the Vistula Lagoon.

The Masurian table

With so many lakes, fish comes first: zander, pike, eel and sielawa, a small whitefish often eaten smoked. You also find dishes from the neighbouring Suwałki region, such as kartacze, large potato dumplings stuffed with meat.

Masurian sękacz is a cake baked on a spit, layer after layer, which grows a coat of spikes. It is on the list of traditional Polish products, as is the lime-blossom honey of the Borki Forest.