General perspective

Mazuria is the beautiful region of North Eastern Poland provides excellent conditions for rest in the peace and quiet of its forests and lakes far away from city noise and traffic. The forests, which cover 30% of the area, are rich in fruits and wildlife. The lakes and waterways offer facilities for sailing. Anglers may catch the fish of their dreams.

The Mazurian region is a land of about 4000 lakes. There are lakes such as Sniardwy or Mamry, over 39 square miles in area; deep ones such as Hancza which is 354 feet in depth. The shorelines of these lakes are extremely varied. There are open shores with beaches accessible for swimming, as well as strips overgrown with reeds and rushes. Some are roofed by lake side trees or tall forests.

The region is called the Land of Thousand Lakes, but in fact it is even richer, because it prides itself on over two thousand lakes. The unique marvel of the Great Mazurian Lakes consists in the fact that, linked with rivers and streams, they create a system of connected vessels, find themselves in the area originally undulating due to the glacier and surrounded by vast forest complexes.

For this reason Warmia and Mazury are the ideal vacation destination place for yachtsmen, windsurfers, canoeists, cyclists and horse riding lovers and for those who long for rest among forests, in a chosen centre or on a remote agro tourist farm.

A bit of history

Simultaneously, the land preserved several fascinating reminiscences after its distant and complicated history. The original populations of this land were pagan tribes of Prussians. They belong to the Western branch of the Baltic language group. Related are the modern representatives of the Baltic languages, the Latvian and Lithuanian languages, from the East Baltic branch.

In 1226 Polish Duke, Konrad of Masovia, invited the Teutonic Knights, a German military order of crusading knights, to conquer the Baltic Prussian tribes on his borders. During 60 years of struggles against the Prussians, the order created an independent state which came to control Prussia. The original inhabitants were replaced by the Polish, Lithuanian and German settlers.

The initially close relationship between the Knights and the Polish Crown has changed completely after the Knights conquered Polish-claimed Pomerania with Gdansk, a capital town of this province and Zmudz, a Lithuanian province. The Knights were eventually defeated in the famous Battle of Grunwald in 1410 by Poland and Lithuania, allied through the Union of Krewo. After the next war (1454 - 1466) the Teutonic Knights were forced to acknowledge the sovereignty of King Kazimierz IV Jagiellon of Poland in the Peace of Torun, losing Pomerania to Poland.

In 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a member of the House of Hohenzollern, became a Lutheran Protestant and secularized the Order’s remaining Prussian territories into the Duchy of Prussia. The Knight’s state went into the past.

The Hohenzollern family, ruled of the Margraviate of Brandenburg to the west, a German state centered on Berlin. Brandenburg and Prussia were unified two generations later. Upon the death of Albert Frederick in 1618, which died without male heirs, John Sigismund was granted the right of succession to the Duchy of Prussia, which was still a Polish fief. From this time the Duchy of Prussia was in personal union with the Margraviate of Brandenburg. The resulting state, known as Brandenburg-Prussia, consisted of geographically disconnected territories in Prussia, Brandenburg, and Rhenish lands of Cleves and Mark. From that time the Masuria used to be called East Prussia.

In 1657 the Polish supervision under Prussia finally ended. Poland was weakened in the numerous wars against Swedes, Russians and Ottomans were unable to prevent that process. The unified Prussian state was becoming more and more powerful. In 1701 the Prussian Kingdom was proclaimed. Later on the Prussian Kingdom became the most powerful state in Germany. In XVIII c. it became more powerful than Poland and together with Russian Empire and Habsburg Empire took part in the partitions of Poland. In 1795 Prussian Kingdom took 1/3 part of the Polish territories. Emperors of Prussia led all the German states to the unification of Germany in 1871.

After 1918 when Poland regained its independence the Prussia once more became a German enklave between Poland and Lithuania.

The final borders were determined after WW II. East Prussia was divided between the Soviet Union (northern part together with Konigsberg, the capital city) and Poland (southern part). The German population was replaced by the expelled from the territories taken by the Soviet Union Poles, Ukrainians (from Polish borderlands) and Russians (northern part).