Green Velo

The city of 11,800 residents is an important tourist centre in the northern part of the Masurian Lake District.

An old Teutonic castle, built in the 14th century, still stands in the city after multiple destructions and redesigns, along with a neo-Gothic parish church built at the beginning of the 17th century with the oldest church organ in the Mazury region. A Greek-Catholic (previously Lutheran) modernist church built of red brick in the 1930s is also worth visiting. The Museum of Folk Culture, including its open-air part, is located near the port. The old train station building houses the Museum of the Railway, and the tourists can make a trip by special train to Gierłoża and Kętrzyn.

A large port for yachts and a passenger pier are connected with the nearby Mamry Lake via Węgorapa River and Węgorzewski Canal.

A World War I cemetery, where 340 German and 234 Russian soldiers were buried, is located in the southern part of the city, on a hill near the Święcajty Lake, just right by the bike loop around Węgorzewo. The hill offers a picturesque panorama of the city and its surroundings.

Georg Andreas Helwing, who was born in the city in 1666, and who lived his entire life there was the most notable resident of the city during its entire history. He was a botanist and Lutheran pastor, the most outstanding researcher of Prussian nature, and a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He created unique herbaria and collections of birds’ eggs, and he also collected samples of minerals – his collection was bought by the Polish King Stanisław Leszczyński.