Polish Augusts and its tourist attraction. Sights of Augustow: photo and description
Sigismund August. This is evidenced by the name of the city, as well as the royal monogram on the city coat of arms.
City `s history
According to the legends Sigismund So he decided to mark the place where he first met his bride Barbara Radziwill. However, the king lived very little with his wife. Many in Poland were against this marriage, including the mother of the king, who was a representative of the Sforza family, famous in the Middle Ages. Very soon after the wedding, Barbara died, and the king suspected that she had been poisoned by his mother. After that, Sigismund sent her to Italy.
Augustow was founded in a very good location. There were roads that connected Poland, Prussia, Lithuania and Belarus. Therefore, the city developed very quickly and very soon became one of the richest in the country. In 1656, Augustow was sacked by the Tatars, and for almost the entire second half of the 17th century the city lay in ruins.
In 1795 the city became part of Prussia. In 1807, Napoleon annexed the city to the Duchy of Poland, after which the city became part of Russia as part of the Kingdom of Poland. During the First World War, heavy fighting took place near Augustów.
The city's attractions
Today, more than a third of Augustów's territory is occupied by forests, and a quarter by water. It is a very clean place from an ecological point of view, so the city is also very popular resort. Near Augustow is Bezhnansky natural Park - the largest in Poland. Its territory is inaccessible, there are few people, so the park is a reserve for a large number of plants and animals.
For guests wishing to visit the park, cycling and walking paths are laid out, and in the most interesting places there are towers from which you can observe the inhabitants of the park. In addition, you can also kayak around the park.
Particularly popular is the walk Augustow Canal, V clear waters which has a lot of fish. Today, this canal, which is a monument of antiquity and hydrological engineering, is a candidate for inclusion in the UNESCO list. This canal was built in the middle of the 19th century in order to facilitate Poland's access to the Baltic Sea.
The canal is 101 kilometers long; it has 18 locks. However, immediately after the construction of the canal, Prussia reduced duties on imported goods and the canal did not work at full capacity. But today it is an excellent tourist route.
Augustow on the map
The city of Augustow, located near the Lithuanian border, is considered an excellent transit point for travelers going to the Baltics. It is located on the famous Augustow Canal, which is considered one of the main city attractions.
We first read about the city of Augustow in documentary chronicles dated 1496. At first this locality ruled by the Lithuanian princes, and in the middle of the XVI century it became a Polish city. In general, this border town managed to be part of many countries: Prussia, Russian Empire, THE USSR. After 1944, he again withdrew to Poland. Throughout its history, Augustus has seen kings and emperors, popes and presidents. Monarchs liked to rest in this small town, which is famous for its proximity to the purest Masurian lakes. In the city you can see the house in which Napoleon lived for several days, it is located on the Sigismund August Market.
Documents in the city archives also tell that in 1793, during negotiations between representatives of the Russian Empire and the Commonwealth, several high-ranking officials, among whom was King Stanislav August, simply fled from Grodno to Augustow in order to see a rare a natural phenomenon- solar eclipse.
Tourists who happened to visit Augustow note a large number of local interesting architectural monuments. These are several churches: the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, built at the beginning of the 20th century, and the baroque monastery complex of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. It was built in 1726, repaired several times, but managed to keep its appearance unchanged. Public buildings, for example, a post office or a yacht club built in the 30s of the last century also arouse the interest of travelers.
There are also museums in Augustow. Expositions of the local local history museum tell not only about the history of the city, but also about the structural features of the Augustow Canal. The Museum of Lancers, which occupies the premises of the bell tower of the Church of the Virgin Mary of Czestochowa, will appeal to men of any age.
Famous resort town Augustow is located in the northeast of Poland, in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is surrounded by the purest lakes and the protected Augustow Forest. The old Augustow Canal passes through the city. Thanks to unique natural features this region was called "Green lungs of Poland". In summer, the city becomes the water capital of the country.
Augustow appeared in the 15th century on the lands that belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There is a romantic legend about the origin of its name. According to her, King Sigismund II August met here with his beloved, the beautiful Barbara Radziwill. During the bloody wars of the 17th - 18th centuries, the city was repeatedly destroyed, but each time it was rebuilt again. In 1815 Augustow became part of the Russian Empire, and in 1919 - the Polish Republic. At this time, he gained fame as a fashionable resort, the first hotels and holiday homes are being built here.
The development of the city was interrupted by World War II. In the middle of the 20th century, the economic and cultural revival of Augustow began.
Sigismund August Market - main square city, formed in the middle of the XVI century. It is surrounded by brick buildings built in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. In the middle of the 19th century, a park was laid out in the center of the square. In 2007, a monument to the founder of the city, King Sigismund II Augustus, was erected there.
Napoleon Bonaparte, after an unsuccessful campaign in Russia in 1812, returned home to France through Augustow. On December 8, 1812, he stopped for the night at house number 28 on the Sigismund August Market. The building is a small classicist brick mansion built around 1800. This is one of the oldest stone houses in the city.
The Augustow Canal was solemnly opened in 1839. He connected the basins of the Neman and the Vistula, passing along the most beautiful places Poland and Belarus and including almost two dozen lakes and rivers. The construction of the canal pursued economic goals. But due to the rapid development railway transport it has lost its significance as a waterway. The last part linking the Vistula with by the Baltic Sea, was never completed.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Augustow Canal became a popular tourist facility. Many water, hiking, cycling and horse trails were laid along it. They allow you to enjoy the beauties of this unique ecosystem that has developed over two centuries. Drawbridges and canal locks - interesting monuments engineering architecture.
The wooden building of the Port Authority was built around 1829. Sometimes it is mistakenly called the house of Ignaty Prondzinsky, the head of the canal construction. The real estate of Prondzinsky has not been preserved. Now the port building houses a branch of the Augustow Museum.
In connection with the construction of the Augustow Canal, a project for the reconstruction of the city center was developed, the author of which was an outstanding Polish architect with Italian roots Heinrich Marconi. The implementation of plans was prevented by the outbreak of the Polish uprising. In 1829 by Heinrich Marconi standard project post office was built. In the main building in the style of classicism there were rooms for guests. On the way from St. Petersburg to Warsaw, Nicholas I and Grand Duke Constantine stayed in them.
Not far from the Port Authority stands a charming little eclectic palace surrounded by a park. It was built in 1903 to control the Vistula-Neman waterway. There was also the apartment of his chief engineer Mikhail Strashkevich.
The building of the officer's yacht club is located on the peninsula above the White Lake. It was built in 1934-1935 by the architect Juliusz Nagórski in the modernist style. The complex included living rooms, bathrooms, gyms, library. After the war, it housed a rest home for the military.
Sanctuary is in former village Studzienichno - the administrative part of Augustow on the lake of the same name. Back in the 18th century, there was a well with holy water, from where the name came from. The sanctuary includes the wooden Church of Our Lady of the Scapular, built in 1847, the chapel of Our Lady of Studzianichanska and the old parish cemetery. The neo-Renaissance brick chapel was built in 1872 according to the design of one of the engineers of the Augustow Canal.
In 1999, Pope John Paul II visited the sanctuary. In honor of this event, a monument was erected next to the chapel.
The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the brightest examples of neo-Romanesque style with eclectic elements. Its construction lasted from 1906 to 1911. The plan of the building is in the form of a Latin cross. Inside are five altars made of neo-Renaissance oak. In 2001, the church was given the status of a Minor Basilica.
Location: ul. Ks. Skorupki-4.
The city cemetery contains the remains of 1509 Red Army soldiers who died in 1941-1944 in the battles for Augustow and its environs. In 1954, an obelisk with a commemorative inscription was erected here. The burial place is surrounded by a brick wall and is protected by the state.
The ethnographic department of the Augustow Museum presents folk culture region. The exposition in the building of the Port Authority is dedicated to the history of the Augustow Canal.
There are 7 lakes around Augustów glacial origin with picturesque coasts, numerous islands and sandy beaches.
Since the middle of the 20th century, Augustow has been actively developing the new kind sports - skiing water skiing. In 1999, the country's first water ski lift was built on Lake Necko.
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The small town of Augustow is located near Grodno on the Augustow Canal. It is small green City sprawled along the coast Masurian lakes. And although the city is usually used as a transit, you can still stop here for ecological walks. My stop in Augustow was just a transit stop, it was supposed to get enough sleep and take a little walk around the neighborhood. In connection with the purchase of a Polish SIM card and a paid weekly unlimited internet, over a cup of coffee at a gas station (surprisingly, free Wi-Fi can only be used if local number, from which you send a connection request and they send you a one-time code for half an hour, and only after that you can use the World Wide Web) I chose a small cozy Villa Hotel MB with good reviews and Russian-speaking hostess.
At 12 o'clock in the evening on the deserted streets of the outskirts of Augustów, after winding along the suburban suburbs local residents, managed to recognize the hotel from the picture and timidly ring the large iron gates behind which rose concrete walls. The door was not immediately opened, but the hostess apologized for the delay and cordially offered an excellent room on the second floor, and the atmosphere of the hotel surprised me, good 4 stars. A wide double bed, new furniture, snow-white sheets, a table for working with a laptop, new plumbing, a shower cabin with a hydromassage shower, a large plasma TV with satellite channels and a small balcony with chairs and a table overlooking the neighboring palisade, as well as confident Wi-Fi no mess with codes.
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In the morning I went out onto the balcony to admire the morning dawn, went down to the living room to have breakfast, where the hostess, already up, laid a beautiful table and fried an omelette. Having thoroughly eaten, I went for a walk to Lake Necko, which was located 300 meters from the hotel. The same fence taken from above, now from the side of the ground.
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The cozy charm of the province, the road to the lake along flowering gardens, local guards and slender pines.
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Definitely for rent, mailboxes.
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Garbage containers for separate waste.
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Tablets, hilariously readable from Polish.
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Sleeping bus.
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And now the lake itself, the season has not begun, so there are still a few yachts and the beaches are empty.
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According to the idiotic tradition, I go where my eyes look and I managed to get lost in three pines. I had to turn on the navigator and find out, a kilometer and a half went towards the city, well, okay, I thought, and the walk continued.
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The weather was sticky, the air settled on the skin with an unpleasant perspiration, announcing that a thunderstorm was gathering. A nice wooden house caught my eye, with a rich flower bed - the Vankovichi Museum.
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I felt that I was approaching the center, hypermarkets went with cafes, stalls with coffee and a bakery, I smiled, like in Polish pastries - pechusho) and I always liked the religiosity of the Poles, there are crosses in the gardens, portraits of John Paul II hang, at very wealthy people sculptural compositions.
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Through the streets of Augustow
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and the local market, where seedlings and seeds were sold, I even bought a couple of bags of outlandish flowers, which caused mother's cottage joy
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I went to the Basilica Minor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, built in neo-Romanesque style in 1907. Next to the church, a foundation stone was erected in memory of the politicians who died near Smolensk in 2010.
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On the other side of the temple, there is a figure of Christ where you can kneel and pray.
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The collage contains photographs; warning sign sights - old mail; a signboard for one of the popular beers - Lech; a photography salon, a city telephone booth and an information board with a map of the city of Augustów.
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The post office interested me, but I didn’t meet anything similar that would resemble it, except perhaps this building, but it looked more like a theological seminary, nuns came out of it every now and then, one can even be seen near the car, and the entrance was decorated with a bas-relief in the form cross.
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After consulting the map, I go to religious building city, the Augustow Canal, looking at the city along the way. I liked that there are terminals at the stops, it is very convenient and the driver is not distracted and there is no need to look for kiosks to purchase tickets. Stop name and final destination well read, st. May 3 - cinema "Iskra", straight nostalgia)
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A pretty cantor offers a currency exchange, in general, in Polish, an exchanger is an cantor.
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And finally, the Augustow Canal is a navigable canal in Poland and in the Grodno region of Belarus, connects the Vistula and Neman rivers (through the Biebrzha, Netta and Black Gancha rivers), a monument of hydraulic engineering, located in a specially protected area of UNESCO. The length is 101.2 km, including 22 km on the territory of Belarus, about 79 km on the territory of Poland. Includes a number of gateways and drawbridges. Church of the Divine Mercy, stands near the lock of the connecting lake.
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The canal connects 7 natural lakes: Necko, Byala, Studzenichne, Orle, Panevo, Krzywe and Mikashevo and 11 rivers: Biebrza, Netta, Black Gancha, Klenovnitsa, Plaska , Perkutsya, Shlyamitsa, Volkushanka, Ostashanka and Neman. Natural reservoirs are connected by hydraulic structures with locks and spillway dams, including service buildings, roads and bridges. The canal construction project arose at the beginning of the 19th century with the aim of direct export by ships of grain and timber rafting to the Baltic ports, bypassing East Prussia. The idea of the project belonged to Prince Francis Drutsky-Lyubetsky. In the second half of 1823, a group of military surveyors led by Colonel Prondzinsky and Lieutenant Colonel Reese carried out the necessary measurements on the territory of the future canal, and by the end of 1824 the canal project was ready. But this is more than 500 sheets of maps, plans, drawings. After the approval of the project by Emperor Alexander I, construction work began, which ended in 1839. At present, the Augustow Canal is unique monument engineering architecture and the most important link in the international tourist complex within the Euroregion "Neman".
Augustow - small town in northeastern Poland.
go into historical background we will not, who are interested - here. One can only mention that during its five centuries of existence at various times this city belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland, Prussia, the Kingdom of Poland, the Polish Republic, the Byelorussian SSR and again returned to Poland. Now there are about 30,000 inhabitants.
We are in Augustow for the second time. The first time was in the summer of 2014, but then we only spent the night in it, arrived late on a rainy evening and hurried to leave early in the morning. Augustow remained behind the scenes.
And this year, Augustov smiled at us, brightened up, showed himself in all his glory. Posed, in general.
We settled in the hotel "Old House". We booked a hotel room at Booking based on positive reviews. Were not mistaken.
The hotel is really a very cozy an old house(more precisely, two old houses), inside is also made in retro style using modern materials and technologies.
I'd like to note that the owner for the same price gave us a better room than we booked for "booking". For the reason "It will be convenient for you", which certainly captivates. Coffee, tea, sugar in the hotel unlimited and at any time. Breakfast is served directly to your room at a convenient time.
* the next picture and some others in the upper right corner are marked with . This means that under such a picture there is another one hidden - similar or from a different angle. To display the second snapshot, click on the first snapshot, to return the first, click on the second.
We moved in, stuffed our things and went to see the city.
The main attraction of Augustow, of course, is the Augustow Canal:
There is a separate story about the channel, so here it is briefly:
Canal embankment: 
The Poles call the city "Northern Venice". All city life revolves around the Augustow Canal and Lake Necko. Currently, Augustow is developing as a resort town. People come here to admire the nature and the crystal clean water Masurian lakes, breath amazingly fresh air. 
One of the channel gateways: 
Not without permanent inhabitants of the water surface:
Swans are apparently used to being fed by passers-by:
And we didn’t have any buns ((
Let's walk through the streets.
Almost all of Augustów consists of small, functional cottages built without the frills so characteristic of Polish towns and villages. 
The Poles invest their whole soul not in the facade, but in the landscaping of their plot of land in front of the house. Here is a place for the manifestation of the ambitions of the homeowner. A sea of flowers, a perfect lawn, bushes, so that "better than the neighbor's." Garden benches and swings are indispensable. However, for every 99 Poles who are sheared, dug and planted, there is one who sits on this bench. Naturally, there is no fashion for high stone fences and brutal steel doors and gates. Everything is very open to "show itself". Provincial Poland - a combed and made-up panenka for marriageable age.
Another of the sights in Augustow, as in almost every historical Polish city, there is Rynok Square:
Well, churches. This one is from the sacred heart of Jesus:
