Mazurian Lakes - North East Introduction We would like to tempt you to spend an attractive holiday in Northeast Poland. This is intended especially for those who enjoy an active holiday: for those who like water sports, or close contact with nature, and for those who are looking for peace and quiet, for everything that can bring perfect regeneration of psychic and physical powers. Northeast Poland is an area with many lakes and rivers, offering splendid conditions for sailing, wind surfing, canoeing, and water skiing. Amateur fishermen will find many smaller lakes and rivers teeming with various kinds of fish: eels, bream, perch, European catfish, crucian carp, burbot, bleak and much sought-after members of the salmon family, the lavaret and European whitefish. Many Polish tour operators organise hunting expeditions in the extensive forests and woods, and also offer photo-safaris for nature lovers, and for bird-watchers a chance to observe many species of birds in their natural habitat. Many rare animals and birds can be found here (elk, roe deer, European bison, foxes, beavers, wolves, lynx, cormorants, swans, grey herons, cranes, ruffs, double snipe, and wood grouse). The most important areas of natural environment are protected in numerous nature reserves and three scenic parks. In Northeast Poland, they offer you holidays in fully furnished holiday chalets in the Szczytno region; summer and winter holidays at Mragowo; canoeing down the Krutynia river; boat trips through the Mazurian lakes and the Elblag Canal; pleasure cruises on Vistula Bay with visits to the most interesting ports; excursions to the most attractive towns of the region; picnics, camp-fire excursions and britzka rides; visits to nature reserves and stud farms; arrangements to hire motor boats, sailing boats, canoes and ice-boats. Although the wonderful scenery and natural environment bring most people to Northeast Poland for summer holidays, the region is equally attractive in other seasons of the year. In autumn, there is a hunting season and an opportunity to pick fruit and mushrooms in the woods. And in winter, there are excellent conditions here for ice boating, skating and cross- country skiing when the smooth surface of the lakes is covered with ice and a thick carpet of snow lies on the ground. A few years ago the region hosted the world ice-boating championships and an international sailing competition, and in 1984, also a great skating marathon, in which Dutch skaters took part. In addition to the natural splendours of the region, you can also find here magnificent historic buildings, museums, and other sites linked with major historical events. There are also interesting cultural events organised here: the International Ballroom dancing Competition in Olsztyn in May, the Festival of Sung Poetry in Olsztyn in July; and the "Country Picnic" which has already become a tradition at Mragowo in August; and many other folk and musical performances. The Northeast region of Poland is very popular with foreign tourists, many of whom visit it each year. The scenery of the Lake District The Polish Lake District stretches in a long belt from the Vistula valley in the West to the borders with the Russian, Latvian, and Belarus Republics in the North and East. To the South the region borders on the Podlasie Plain and Mazovian Plain. Indeed, the whole of Northeast Poland could without exaggeration be described as one great lake district, although it is subdivided into smaller units, each with its own scenic features. The changing relief of the land contours, the astonishing variety of the forms, the multiplicity of hills, ridges, and depressions that are often prelate in shape - all this has been left by the last period of glaciation in the Polish territory. These are forms that are still relatively young and have not been much eroded by later processes. The best-preserved post-glacial relief contours can be found to the North of Suwalki, in the area of the Suwalki Scenic Park. The second typical elements in the scenery of this district are the lakes, which are also relics of the Scandinavian glacier. There are more than 3,000 of them, and half of them have a surface area of more than one hectare. They are usually beautifully set among hills and forests, like jewels against a dark green mounting. They are extremely varied in shape, their shore broken up by a multitude of inlets and peninsulas. Gully lakes are very common, filling the elongated depressions that were washed out by the glacial waters. Lakes of this kind, and in particular the large lakes of the Great Mazurian Lake District, are especially popular among sailors. Rivers and canals to form a whole system of water routes that offer superb conditions for water sports and holidays link many of the lakes. They are not, of course, spread evenly over the area. The major districts are: the Ilawa- Ostroda Lake District; the Brodnica Lake District; the Olsztyn Lake District; the Great Mazurian Lake District, the Elk Lake District, and the Suwalki Lake District. Forests form a third important attraction in the make-up of the scenery of this part of the world; there are coniferous and mixed forests, containing a wide variety of types of trees. There are three principal dense and extensive forest areas: the Pisz Forest, the Augustow Forest, and the forests that lie between Olszynek and Szczytno. The beautiful Romincka Forest, which reminds one of the Siberian taiga, the Borecka Forest, and the wonderful woods in the Ilawa-Ostroda Lake District are all much smaller wooded areas. These forest, lakes and hills combine to provide scenery of great charm, which is never monotonous, and indeed is always surprising in its variety. At every step, the beauty of nature is evident here, in a form, which has been little changed by the activities of man. In the pages of history From ancient times until the early Middle Ages, the region was inhabited by the tribes of Prussians and Jatzvingians, who gradually came to present a growing threat to the area of Mazovia. It was for this reason that in the first half of 13th century, Prince Conrad of Mazovia invited here the Order of Teutonic Knights with their characteristic white robes and black crosses. Under the guise of a campaign to convert the heathen, they shortly began a bloody conquest of the Prussian and Jatzvingian areas, which was to last until the end of the century. A powerful religious state with its headquarters at Malbork was thereafter set up on the territories that the Knights had thus won. At the same time, many newcomers from the Chelmno, Mazovia and Podlasie areas came here to settle. The eastern part of the region, which had been almost entirely depopulated by the activities of the Teutonic Knights, was to be covered with forest for several centuries. The battle of Grunwald, fought in 1410 between the Teutonic Knights and the joint armies of Poland, Lithuania and Russ, under the command of the Polish King, Ladislaus Jagiello, was of major significance for the history of the region. The defeat that the Teutonic Knights suffered at Grunwald marked the beginning of the fall of one of Poland's most dangerous enemies. From this time on, anti-Teutonic sentiments increased, and led to the outbreak of an uprising and a further war between Poland and the Order. Under the terms of the Treaty of Torun (1466), which concluded this war, the historic region of Warmia became part of Poland. The last war with the Teutonic Order lasted from 1519 to 1521, and finally in 1525 Albrecht Hohenzollern paid homage at Cracow to the King of Poland, Sigismund I the Old, and the Knight religious state became a secular unit. From the second half of the 16th century until the third partition of Poland in 1795, the bishopric of Warmia remained in Polish hands, while Ducal Prussia passed to the rule of the Hohenzollernes of Brandenburg. After the Peace of Torun, Polish settlers began to make their way into Mazuria. From the early 18th century, Polish settlement was restricted by an order of the King of Prussia, but nonetheless the Polish element in the population remained predominant for many years to come, especially in the countryside. After the first partition in 1772, Warmia was also absorbed into the Prussian State. Various measures were thereafter taken by the partitioning power to increase Germanisation; these affected especially the teaching of the Polish language in schools, and the saying of mass in Polish. The second half of the 19th century was a period of particularly strong attempts at germanisation, although the large numbers of the Polish population, and the resilience of national traditions reinforced by the activities of a large number of social and cultural organisations, considerably reduced the effectiveness of this campaign. In this period, Olsztyn, Elk and Gizycko were the main centres of Polish nationalism, and the greatest services in the cause of a Polish Warmia and Mazuria were performed by Krzysztof Celestyn Mrongowiusz, Gustaw Gizewiusz, Wojciech Ketrzynski, and the Pieniezny family. During the First World War, a great battle was fought near Olsztynek between the German forces and the army commanded by the tsarist general Samsonov. In 1920, a plebiscite was held in Warmia and Mazuria, as a result of which these areas remained part of Germany, although the Suwalki and Augustow regions were within the Polish frontiers from 1918. In the inter-war period there was renewed enthusiasm for the organisation of activities of social, cultural and economic associations that were fighting to ensure that the local population retained its Polish character. During the Second World War, leading Polish activists were persecuted, and the majority were killed in concentration camps and prisons.