The surrounding area

Our Mazury Farm Holidays Centre is an ideal base for exploring such places as:

GRUNWALD – a small museum with a small cinema which shows part of the Polish film “Krzyżacy” [Teutonic Knights] showing the course of the battle. The building is situated exactly on the spot where, on 13 July 1410, King Władysław Jagiełło pitched his tent. Description of Battle of Grunwald.

OLSZTYNEK one of the largest collections of old cottages and traditional country buildings in Poland (open-air museum), with wooden dwellings from the Warmia, Mazury, and Powiśle regions, as well as Prussian Lithuania.

GOLF COURSE IN NATERKI – 18-hole golf course at the Mazury Golf & Country Club. A championship golf course (par 72) designed by Martin Hawtree of Hawtree Ltd in the UK, the oldest firm of golf course architects in the world. The basic objective of the designer was to take advantage of the exceptional charm of the Mazury landscape, without impacting the natural environment too much. The variety of the Mazury Golf & Country Club’s layout and its unusual location, make it very attractive to players – experienced and beginners. The course is ideally suited to each player’s ability. Thanks to numerous natural and specially-created barriers, the Naterki course is one of the most interesting and challenging venues in Poland.

DYLEWSKIE WZGÓRZA LANDSCAPE PARK – a blue trail which runs past the Ulnowo guest house leads both to the Grunwald battlefield and to the Wzgórza Dylewskie Landscape Park (a shorter route runs through Frygnowo). We recommend the park and surrounding areas as excellent bicycle trip destinations from Ulnowo. The park contains the highest point in the Mazury Lakes (312m above sea level) with a superb viewing point. Francuskie Jezioro, a plant protection reserve, lies about 3 km from this point – conserving swamp willow and pockets of beech grove.

SOURCE OF THE ŁYNA NATURE RESERVE -it is worth making a trip to this nature reserve and seeing, on the way, the WW1 German cemetery in Orłowo.

THE ELBLĄG CANAL – a canal network linking a number of lakes in the Ostróda area with  Elbląg and Iława. The Ostróda-Elbląg section is the most interesting one from an engineering angle. It has the only functioning mechanical systems called inclined planes in Europe and possibly in the world. This system helps vessels over a 9.6 km section to overcome a difference of 99.5 m in water levels using special cradles. A regular passenger service runs over the Ostróda – Elbląg leg during the summer season.

MALBORK – the castle in Malbork is unique in Europe. It is the largest gothic fortress on the sub-continent, with over 20 hectares of defensive works, towering over the right bank of the river Nogat.

GIERŁOŻ – “WOLF’S LAIR” – the site of Adolf Hitler’s infamous headquarters. The fortifications started to be built in 1940. About 80 buildings were constructed over 2.5 sq km, of which 50 were bunkers. From 1941, with brief interludes, Hitler along with the German Armed Forces High Command stayed here. The Führer’s quarters, which were probably on the north side of the railway line, were specially secured, like Bormann’s and Göring’s with 8m-thick reinforced concrete walls and a network of tunnels. On 20 July 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg made a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in the Wolf’s Lair. He placed a bomb under a table at which the Führer was sitting. The explosion killed two people and wounded twelve, but Hitler himself was unharmed and was able to receive Mussolini, later that same day. Five thousand people suspected of having had links with the plot were killed as part of the reprisals. Upon learning of the approach of the Red Army, the High Command abandoned the Wolf’s Lair in November 1944. Then, on 24 January 1945, retreating troops of the German Fourth Army blew it all up. Today, one can see what has survived: bunkers and shelters in various conditions.