★ Nature · Szczecin and the lagoonNowe CzarnowoA grove of about four hundred pines with trunks bent like hooks at the base, all in the same direction: nobody knows for sure why.
The storyThe pines were planted around 1930, when this area was in Germany. A few years later someone bent the young trees about ten centimetres above the ground, and they grew back upright after a curve of almost ninety degrees. There are many theories: curved timber for building boats or furniture, a forestry technique, even a snowstorm. The war interrupted everything, and the secret was lost with those who knew it.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · The islands of Usedom and WolinWolinA Slavic and Viking village reconstructed on a small island in the Dziwna river, where a big festival is held every summer.
The storyIn the 10th and 11th centuries Wolin was one of the largest ports on the Baltic, home to Slavs, Scandinavians and merchants from everywhere: many historians believe the legendary Jomsborg, the Viking fortress of the sagas, stood here. The Centre of Slavs and Vikings has reconstructed a village with wooden houses, a harbour and workshops, and in early August it hosts a festival with thousands of re-enactors from all over Europe.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Inland PomeraniaKołbaczA 13th-century red-brick Cistercian abbey, one of the first in Pomerania, with a Gothic granary that has survived intact.
The storyThe Cistercian monks came from Denmark in 1173 at the invitation of the lords of Pomerania and built one of the region's first monasteries here, with a large brick church. After the Reformation the abbey became a ducal estate; part of the church survives and is still in use, with its façade and rose window, and next to it stands the monks' granary. Around it, fields and a small museum.
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