The best road cycling routes in Rezerwat Bajory

The Masurian Canal is an unfinished, impressive project that was intended to connect Mamry with Łyna and the Baltic Sea. Today, it runs through Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast and is closed to navigation. On the Polish side, it's worth seeing the monumental locks in Leśniewo and the only operational lock, Piaski. Along the canal are embankments and former towpaths, perfect for walking or cycling.

Lake Przystań, a deep bay of Mamr, is a great destination for a bike trip in the vicinity of Węgorzewo. There is a picturesque section of Green Velo along the Mała Pętla Mamr. The lake is famous for its crystal clear water and great depth - it is popular with divers, who can explore here, among others, the sunken tug Arabela. There is a comfortable MOR and a small beach with a pier in this place. In the area it is also worth seeing bunkers from World War II.

There is a museum here and the main building has long been under renovation.

I didn't quite understand what our tour guide was trying to explain to me as historical background 🤔 We cycled all around the never-completed canal on wonderfully accessible forest paths.

The beginning of an unfinished building.

A trip into history is definitely worth it

Palace (a pearl among the architectural monuments of Warmia and Mazury), a historical park and the remains of the former Lehndorff family estate, a historic oak avenue, a cult sailing port, compact, orderly buildings in the village, a nature reserve in the immediate vicinity and the largest bridge in Masuria, erected between the lakes of Dargin and Kirsayts. The palace was built in the years 1689-1691 on the initiative of Countess Maria Eleonora von Dӧnhoff, wife of Ahasverus Gerhard Lehndorff. The seat of the family was established on the foundations of a building erected here earlier, in the years 1554-1572 (the remains of the previous palace are basements with cross and barrel vaults, as well as the three-bay layout of the building). At the end of the 17th century, a two-story palace was built, covered with a hipped, steep roof. A small break is topped with a high, flattened pediment. In the hall, there are representative two-speed oak stairs. Countess von Dӧnhoff also arranged an 18-hectare park, surrounding the palace from the north. Near the palace there were flower floors, then regular oak alleys. The park was decorated with numerous sculptures. On the clearing, on the main axis, there was a sundial from 1741 (currently located in the courtyard of the museum in Morąg). In the years 1829-1880, the palace was rebuilt (also side wings were added). The west wing was closed with a tower covered with a hipped roof. The elevation of the façade was rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style. From the side of the garden elevation, alcove towers were added to both corners. In the 19th century, a number of buildings were also erected in the park: a neoclassical teahouse (designed by Langhans from 1816) in the eastern part, a neo-Gothic chapel (around 1830) in the western part, an octagonal, neo-Gothic tomb chapel of the Lehndorffs on the western tip of Lake Sztynorcki 1830, builder Staudener, design by Schinkel). The chapel is two-story and there is a crypt in the basement. The upper storey served as a chapel, used not only by the inhabitants of the palace, but also by the town. In 1941, the palace was taken over by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the German Reich. Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was here. During the war in 1945, Sztynort escaped destruction. Until 1947, the headquarters of the Soviet army was located in the palace. https:// Klimatyzacjacje.mazury.pl/palac-sztynort/ https://wegorzewo.pl/ Klimatyzacjacje/awodcja/736/palac_lehndorffow_w_sztynorty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDm4alvCnII

The Masurian Canal (German: Masurischer Kanal, Russian: Канал Мазурский) is an unfinished water canal that was intended to connect the Great Masurian Lakes with the Baltic Sea via the Łyna and Pregoła rivers. Currently, the Masurian Canal runs through the territory of two countries: Poland and the Russian Federation. It is not open to navigation. The Masurian Canal project, conceived in the late 19th century, was based on earlier work by Polish brothers who settled in Ducal Prussia. In the 17th century, Józef Naronowicz-Naroński developed detailed maps of the lakes and a plan to connect the Pregoła River with the Neman River by a canal. His successor, Samuel Suchodolec (Suchodolski), developed a design for a canal connecting Lake Śniardwy with Lake Niegocin and then with the Pregoła River. With the construction of canals between the Masurian lakes, which began in 1764, the idea of connecting them with the Baltic Sea through a new canal began to be seriously considered. From several possible options, the route connecting Lake Mamry with the Łyna River was selected as the most economically viable. A design for a canal approximately 50 km long, with six water stages and a drop of approximately 111 meters, was developed between 1849 and 1862. However, it was never implemented. Another design, developed in 1874, had already been approved by the East Prussian State Parliament, but due to land ownership issues along the construction route, it also failed to materialize. Between 1890 and 1898, attempts were made to implement a further version of the project. This involved the construction of locks instead of the previously proposed inclined planes, and the construction of hydroelectric power plants at each of the canal's stages (six of which were to be built). Two safety gates in the form of cylindrical weirs were also designed. This concept was also not implemented, primarily due to protests from residents of the Pregolya and Dejma valleys, who feared an increased flood risk. There were also concerns that the planned constant supply of water to the canal at a rate of 6 m³/s would result in navigation disruptions (especially during the summer). https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana%C5%82_Mazurski https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LvQrxhRHXk