This is one of the most beautiful places in Poland. Picturesque landscapes filled with stunning forests, lakes and rivers. Every corner is unique in beauty. We’ll try to enlighten you with our virtual tour.
We begin at Kartuzy, which is known as the capital of Kashubia. While walking through the town, it’s worth visiting the Kashubian Museum. In addition, in this district an important museum is in Będomin – the National Anthem Museum - one of its kind in the world, housed in a country manor house owned by Josef Wybicki.
Kościerzyna is the next big town in this region. The old centre, which contains a street plan from the Middle Ages, is on a hilltop. This is one of the oldest towns in the region which, like Kartuzy, has some claim as a
Kashubian capital. It’s a good idea to spend some time at the open-air Railway Museum in Kościerzyna, where in the locomotive shed, quite a number of locomotives, diesel cars and saloon cars stand on side tracks. A visit to the museum can really be great entertainment for children, who can more or less go inside all the exhibits and play with the drivers’ control sticks.
The most important attraction of this region is the oldest open-air museum in Poland at Wdzydze Kiszewskie, with a rich collection of original dwellings from all corners of Kashubia. You can also take a boat trip across the nearby Lake Wdzydze.
For tourists who love kayaking, we suggest the Kółka Raduńskie route, which consists of 10 lakes, and totals 40km. Along the way, you can stop at the viewing tower at the highest point in Kashubia - Wieżycy. Chmielno in turn is inviting with its Museum of Kashubian Pottery run by the Necel family, where as well as admiring the exhibits, watching the potters at work, and watching the hand painting, with beautiful designs, you can have a go at making a pot yourself.
Kashubian forests also house stone circles. These can be found not far from Chmielno at Węsiory. And on the west bank of Long Lake (Jeziora Długiego) is the Gothic Cemetery established in I - III century AD. Here, there are 132 hidden graves, three complete stone circles and the remains of a fourth and 20 mounds. For those interested in archaeology we suggest yet another site of stone circles in this area at Odry near b. This site also contains various forms of burial sites, such as mounds, stone circles, and flat graves. To finish the tour, it’s worth catching a glimpse of the castle at Łapalice near Lake Rekowo. This is a three-storey castle which rings of fantasy and bristles with 12 towers with spiral tops.
Kashubia is an enclave of wonderful folklore, which is still alive and carefully looked after today. Most of the inhabitants use Kashubian language and live with traditions and festivals of this culture such as: ‘jastra’, ‘sobótki’, ‘gwiżdże’ and ‘zapusty’, on which days villagers come out wearing colourful, richly embroidered, traditional costumes with unique sets of musical instruments.
Everyone who visits Kashubia must definitely try some traditional Kashubian cooking.