Every design for Giżycko

Down by the Most obrotowy w Giżycku, the swing bridge over the canal, the traffic waits while masts glide past – the most ordinary scene in a town that calls itself the sailing capital of Poland. Giżycko sits between Lake Kisajno and Lake Niegocin in Masuria, one of the main ports on the route through the Great Masurian Lakes.

What makes Giżycko unique is how deep its history runs along the water. The missionary Bruno of Querfurt was killed by Sudovians near Lake Niegocin, and the Wzgórze Świętego Brunona still carries his name. The Teutonic Knights built a castle on the isthmus between the two lakes, and the Zamek w Giżycku still stands. Later came the Twierdza Boyen, a whole fortress on the island part of town, and a Lutheran church in the centre designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Through it all, the people of the town were long mostly Polish-speaking Masurians who called it Łuczany, and Polish generals Józef Zajączek and Jan Henryk Dąbrowski once quartered their troops here.

If you have ever learned to sail on Niegocin or watched the bridge turn on a summer evening, wear this map for those days. They belong to you.