To the Stork Village

Voivodeship

Warmińsko-Mazurskie

Kingdom

Warmia and the Area

Start:

Górowo Iławeckie, Gasworks Museum

End:

Górowo Iławeckie, Gasworks Museum

Download GPX file

The trail of the trip starts in Górowo Iławeckie and leads through the Górowskie Uplands – the moraine ridge that clearly stands out among surrounding plains, with the average height exceeding 150 m a.s.l. The Górowskie Uplands are intersected by the valley of the Wałsza river, which forms a picturesque deep ravine. The first section of the trail leads through Kamińsk (pre-war Stabławki) – a village located within the former military training area of German troops, which was established there in the 1930s. The extensive military complex stretched out to the north, beyond the current border of Poland. During World War II, it was the site of the Stalag I A Stablack POW camp. Today the former barracks in Kamińsk function as a prison. The greatest attraction of the trail is Żywkowo, called also the “village of the storks”; located close to the Polish-Russian border, it is inhabited mainly by people of Ukrainian descent. It is estimated that around 160 storks stay here in summer. You can see dozens of their nests on roofs and trees. You can have a look into some of them from a special observation tower located on the farm run by the Polish Bird Protection Society. A few hundred metres past Żywkowo, the trail reaches an asphalt road. On its opposite side, there is a high observation tower. It is situated on the former road to Iławka (Pruska Iława, today Bagrationovsk) – a town located around 1 km away from the border. During the Napoleonic Wars, on 7^th-8^th February 1807, Iławka was the site of the battle between the French army and the joint forces of Russia and Prussia. In 1945, the town was part of Poland for a couple of months; later it was annexed to the USSR. The last section of the trail runs on a rarely used local road to Górowo Iławeckie. At the end of the trip, it is worth touring the town. The historic elements that have survived till today include the medieval urban layout and the market square with the town hall and historic houses. It is also worth visiting Górowo temples: a neo-Gothic church, an Orthodox church and a Greek-Catholic church, the last of them containing an iconostasis by Jerzy Nowosielski.

Surface and marking of the trail:

MARKED TRAIL

The most part of the trail runs on asphalt roads of low traffic intensity. The other parts are short sections of unsurfaced roads. The trail of the trip overlaps with the green cycling trail.

Attractions on the trail:

Greek-Catholic Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Górowo Iławeckie
Orthodox Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Górowo Iławeckie
Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Górowo Iławeckie
Warmia and Masuria Gas Museum in Górowo Iławeckie
Museum of the storks in Żywkowo
Natural path in Żywkowo
Observation tower in Żywkowo

Course of the trail: