The best traffic-free bike rides around Lake Graniczne

A wonderful place. Here you can admire ancient buildings from Kashubia, Kociewie, and the Tuchola Forest. There are wooden cottages, windmills, an inn, churches, and entire old farmsteads. Travel back in time to see what people did when there was no internet! A truly interesting place, such living, fascinating history. You can peek into each building and see what it was like. Don't forget to buy tickets! http://www.muzeum-wdzydze.gda.pl/

In a valley with high and steep banks, flows the Wda River, used for tourism. It flows out of Lake Krężno near Bytów at an altitude of 160 m above sea level. The section from Lake Wdzydze to the Żurskie Reservoir (the mouth of the Prusina River) constitutes the middle course of the river. It is characterized by a large drop (approx. 0.72 ‰), numerous meanders and narrowings. Along its entire course, the Wda receives numerous tributaries. The most important of them are the Ryszka (catchment area: 103.5 km2), Sobińska Struga (103.3 km2) and Prusina (101.2 km2). Below the Wda's outflow from Lake Wdzydze, there is a lock that dams and regulates the waters of the river below the lake. The river below the above-mentioned lake is canalized, constituting the so-called Wda Channel, and its waters are used to irrigate the Czerskie Meadows with an area of 103.5 km2. 500 ha and supplying fish ponds in Uręża (Szczęsny 1992). The middle section of the Wda flows through the forested areas of the Park with large fragments of natural deciduous forests. The Wda here meanders strongly and its valley is cut 10-15 m into the surface of the sandur. The most scenic section of the Wda is located between the mouth of the Brzezianka and the town of Tleń, where the river swiftly makes its way through the forests in a narrow and winding, gorge-like bed. At a distance of about 5 km below the mouth of the Brzezianka, it forms a loop, called the “Krzywe Koło” forest area. The landscape values of this area, enhanced by magnificent fragments of natural deciduous forests, are among the most beautiful in the Tuchola Forest. https://www.csw.pl/aktualnosci/dla-turysty/przyroda/2018/08/31/rzeka-wda/

Once a year, the open-air museum hosts the Wdzydzki Fair, which lasts two days and is worth seeing

At the very beginning, it is worth mentioning the dedication ceremony of the Lutheran Church in Kościerzyna (Berent), which took place on Wednesday, April 18, 1894, as stated in the holiday program of the ceremony, printed especially for this occasion. This temple served the local faithful of the Evangelical faith until 1945. After World War II, this post-Evangelical church under the invocation of St. John of Nepomuk was designated for youth as a school church. The Resurrectionists came to Kościerzyna at the request of the then Ordinary of the Chełmno Diocese, Bishop Kazimierz Józef Kowalski, who wanted to entrust them with the care of the abandoned post-Evangelical church and the children and school youth in Kościerzyna. The Resurrectionists arrived in the city on July 4, 1947. https://parafiakoscierzyna.pl/index.php/historia-parafii

The Museum – Teodora and Izydor Gulgowski Kashubian Ethnographic Park in Wdzydze Kiszewskie is located on the picturesque shores of Lake Gołuń. There are over 50 buildings characteristic of the rural landscape of Kashubia, Kociewie and Tuchola Forest from the 17th to the 20th century. Visitors can admire the wealth of old wooden architecture of Pomerania with its equipment: cottages, manors, a school, windmills, churches, inns, farm buildings and craft workshops. The farmsteads present: methods of grinding snuff and grinding grain, washing, mangling, tailoring, weaving, the work of a blacksmith, wheelwright and forest worker. The museum offers various workshops and shows, both for individual visitors and for groups. For the youngest visitors, an interactive exhibition has been prepared “Museum for fun?” - where children can experience the past and plan a museum of the future. This is an exhibition where you are allowed to touch the exhibits: check what it is like to sleep under a duvet, look inside a cast iron waffle iron and rummage through a kitchen cupboard. It tells about various museums that exist in the world; explains why we need museum collections in the first place; shows what kind of exhibits can be collected, for example, in open-air museums. It asks children and adults the question: "What matters to people?" In this way, the exhibition makes visitors aware that research never ends, and that history and tradition are constantly being created. https://wdzydzkipark.pl/o-parku-4/dziedzictwo-kulturowe-6/muzea/kaszubski-park-etnograficzny/

At the beginning, the asphalt is poor, but the further you go, the better it gets!

Branch Church of St. Barbara in Wdzydze Kiszewskie Built around 1700 in the village of Swornegacie. In 1740, a tower was added. Originally dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. Bartholomew. Expanded in 1740, 1744 and 1812. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was in a deplorable state. In 1916, the first Holy Mass was celebrated in the new church, and the old one was to be demolished. However, the residents saved the monument, which was renovated in 1947. In 1980, the Chełmno Curia transferred the then inactive temple to the open-air museum in Wdzydze. The church was moved to the open-air museum in the years 1980-1987.

The parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Wąglikowice is one of the oldest in the Kościerzyna district. However, the town of Wąglikowice itself is mentioned in sources around 1400. It is worth mentioning that in the 17th century, a small church was built in this Kashubian town, which was a branch of the Holy Trinity parish in Kościerzyna. The building was built of wooden elements. In 1727, the temple burned down. This dramatic event was very strongly embedded in the consciousness of the residents of this town, and all thanks to the miraculous saving from the flames of the painting of Our Lady of Wąglikowice, which is still in the church in Leśno. However, the people living in Wąglikowice were too poor to rebuild the church and build a new temple. More for those interested https://parafia-waglikowice.blogspot.com/p/historia.html