Every design for Augustów

Augustów sits on the Netta River where the Augustów Canal threads its way between lakes, with the Puszcza Augustowska forest closing around it from the east, the south and the north. Most of the town's area is woodland and water; the built-up centre is only a small island inside it.

Out on the north-eastern edge of Poland, it lies closer to the borders of Belarus and Lithuania than to Białystok, in the region of Suwalszczyzna. Bona Sforza founded it, Sigismund II Augustus gave it its town rights and its name, and the regular streets around the large market square still follow that early plan. Today it is a summer resort and an officially recognised spa town. The Śluza Augustów is part of the canal, a Historic Monument of Poland, and the Dział Historii Kanału Augustowskiego tells its story, while the Bazylika Najświętszego Serca Pana Jezusa rises above the rooftops.

Anyone who grew up here measures childhood in summers: the first boat trip, the walk to the Plaża Miejska Augustów, long evenings by the Netta. On this map, those paths still lead to the same places.