The Golub-Dobrzyń District

1. The Golub-Dobrzyń District

2. The seat of the district and city governments; numbers 13159 inhabitans. It was created in 1951 by unting the towns of Golub and Dobrzyń. The Drwęca river separating the two towns made a historical border between the Chełmno and Golub Lands, and during the partitions of Poland – between Prussia and Russia. The first mention about Golub found in written sources dates back to the 16 – th century. Between 1296 and 1309 the Teutonic Knights erected a castle whicht was to guard the crossing of the river. Around the year 1293 the town was finally founded tn the meanders of the river. In the Middle Ages the city was experiencing intensive growth owing to trade relations with the neighbouring Dobrzyń Land but the prosperity was later restrained as the results of the wars with the Teutonic Order. Between 1611 and 1625 the local starosty was hires to king Zygmunt III’s sister, Anna Wazówna who became famous for rebuilding the castle in renessaince style and founding the very first plantation of tobacco in Poland. The city retained the medieval layout of the old town, where numerous monuments can be found. Golub-Dobrzyń is a lively centre of tourism and offers a wide range of services. In the town there are located factories of building materials, wire products and feeding stuff concentrates. Culture,sportsWhat attracts poeple to the city of Golub-Dobrzyń are the Knightly Tournaments organized by the Knights’ Society dunder the command of Zygmunt Kwiatkowski. For many years the renowned teams from all over Europe have been taking part in them. Knights from Italy, France, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine have been hosted here. To other attractive events organized by the management of the castle the following must be numbered: The International Oratory Contest, The Winter Knightly Tournament in the Indoor Manege, The International Knightly Festival with The Troubadours’ Festival, Horse-riding Tourist Guides’ Rally, The Hunting Trumpeters’ Review, The Golub Knightly Carnival with Knightly Tournament and International Knightly Ball, The Grand Lawyers’ Ball, The Grand Golub-Dobrzyń Starost’s Ball, All-Polish Festival of Historical Performances, Polish Battle Painting Exhibition, The Gallery of Polish Painting and Ancient Arms, All-Polish Exhibition of Inlay, Folk Bands Review and many others. The castle is also a stage of arch-bow tournaments ( equal in rank to national championships ), oratory contests for tourist guides and of open air performances. Young students may develop their skills in knightly trade in the local School of Knights. 

4. The cultural life in Golub-Dobrzyń concentrates in the Cultural Centre and The Regional Library which has been working since 1948 and is the oldest cultural centre in the town. It boasts of an impressive collection of books composed of about 53 thousands of books. The library arranges scientific lectures, meetings with interesting people and exhibitions. With the children’s branch of the library an amateur theatre group is performing and a magazine written by children is published. The Cultural Centre organizes various workshop for school-aged children and the following numerous cyclic events: All-Polish Golub Chess night, All-Polish Golub Bridge Night, Golub Encounters with Poetry, All-Polish Historical Films Review, Christmas, Meetings “Let us hold hands round the Christmas Tree”, cyclic meetings “Famous and Unknown Personalities of Politics, Culture and Arts…”, Northern Poland Senior Choirs Review, Children’s Arts Work Review, Blues Vigil, Music Confrontations.      In summer time many open air happenings are organized here, out of which “Golub-Dobrzyń Days” and “Townspeople’s Revels” are worth noticing. In the house in Hallera Street there have taken place many exhibitions of paintings including oil paintings by Ewa Kardaszewska, collage by Lucjan Czapulak, pastel paintings by Artur Miklewicz, and  exhibitions of photographs by Paweł Badowski, Mirosław Wiwatowski, Józef Krępeć. Choirs and amateur bands are actively engaged in cultural life of Golub-Dobrzyń, too. The best known is the choir “Halka” which has been performing for eighteen years, basing its activity on the tradition of the choir of the same name performing in the Prussian Partition. The others are: the parish choir “Cantemus Domino” centered in St Catherine’s Church awarded with many prestigious prizes on festivals of religious songs and the school no. 1 and 2 and in the high school. The Fire Brigade Department Brass Band adds splendour to the city cultural events. 

5. Many individuals have a great influence on cultural life and among them are: Jan Jagodziński-a devoted social life activist and culture coordinator among senior citizens and a poet recording chief cultural, patriotic and religious occasions in his poems; Irena Muller-the manager of one of the Retireews Unions organizing exhibitions of amateur arts;Roman Tasarz-the director of the Cultural Centre and a poet with eight collections of poems in his literary output;Kazimierz Barkowski-a poet, the author of two recently published collections of poems. In Szafarnia located near Golub-Dobrzyń there has been operating for fifteen years the chopin Centre ( one of two centres of this kind in Poland ) where The International Pianistic Concerts for School Children, numerous concerts, literary and artistic competitions, modern art exhibitional Culture Centre in Kowalewo Pomorskie arranges a number of regional and national entertaining events, the following of which ought to be mentioned here: The All-Polish Street Race, The Roller-skaters’ Race, The International Chess Tournament ( which has been organized for eight years now ), The Diocese Festival of Religious Songs, The Regional Review of Christmas Songs and Carols and Kowalewo Pomorskie Days. Moreover, for seven years the above mentioned Cultural Centre has been editing the monthly magazine “Goniec Kowalewski” which reports the news from the commune and the town. The sporting activities in Golub-Dobrzyń develop in the City Sports Centre “Drwęca” which instructs football and chess players and boasts of almost a hundred year traditions. With the Sports and Recreation Centre there trains a cycling section which organizes a number of regional and national cycling races. Grzegorz Piwowarski, the former participant of the Olimpic Games acts as the group’s coach. Immensely popular is the group racing organized by the Racers’ Club “Rytm” under the guidance of Jerzy Nadolski. Among the most popular are “Golub-Dobrzyń Grand Prix” race, the National Championships of Veteran in Street Racing-“Solidarity Race” and “New Year’s Eve Races”. The Country Sports Club”Promień-Danstal” boasts fifty years’existence as well as football team and chess and race sections. Spectacular successes can be attributed to Karina Szymańska, the winner of the marathons in Cean, Bolonzo and Wachen.

9. Tourist attractions The biggest tourist centre in the district is Golub-Dobrzyń. It has a medieval town-planning layout with well-preserved city walls from the latter of the 14-th century, which once comprised 17 towers. The gothic church from the 14-th century with a pentagonal presbitery decorated with buttresses and a net vault is certainly worth visiting. Its interior decorations date back to the baroque epoch. On the market square there remained a tenement house with a manneristic top from the year 1617 and a wooden arcaded house from the latter halh of the 18-th century. Other examples of sacral monumental architecture worthy of notice include the classicistic church from the year 1823 in Dobrzyń and the Protestant church from the year 1909 ( at present a primary school ) in Golub. The most impressive monument of the capital of the district is the famous castle ranking among the most beautiful in Poland. It was erected by the Teutonic Knights between 1296-1309 at the site of a Slavonic settlement and in the year 1454 became the seat of royal starosts. Its most glamorous time falls between 1611-1625 when Polish king Zygmunt III Waza’s daughter, princess Anna Wazówna, resided here. At that time it was a major centre of cultural and intellectual life, well-known throughout the country. In the latter half of the 16-th century it was thoroughly rebuilt and received renaissance features. Though, unfortunately, at the beginning of the 19-th century it fell into ruin, between 1959-1969 it was restored and partly reconstructed and now it is open to tourists who are welcome to use the hotel, the coffee bar and visit the museum located in its premises. The castle’s fame and splendour continuosly spread owing to International Knightly Tournaments, Knightly Festivals, Oratory Contests, New Year’s Eve Receptions, Hunting Games “Hubertusy” and Arch-bow Tournaments organized here yearly. In Kowalewo Pomorskie, the second-best town of the district, the well-preserved fragments of the city walls and the corner tower from the turn of the 13-th century are obviously worthy of tourists’ attention. At the foot of the castle hill there stands a gothic pillar of a turret which is the remains of old-time Teutonic fortifications. A very interesting monuments is also St Nicholas’ church from 16-th century with a whole layout and a flat vault. Its interior baroque decorations come mostly from the pulled down Dominican church in Toruń. While you are in Golub-Dobrzyń, you can’t miss Szafarnia situated nearby, with the Chopin Centre of nation-wide fame, located in the palace of the Dziewanowski family from the 19-th century. It is here where the most famous Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin dwelt twice in the summer months.

10. Chopin’s stay in Szafarnia immensely influenced his achievements,as it is here where he came across the traditions and rituals of Polish countrymen, and, impressed by the picturesque surroundings wrote his early mazurkas. In Szafarnia one can visit the museum presenting the exhibits related to Chopin’s life and particularly his stay in Szafarnia, the concert hall and the beautiful park. Nearby there is the village of Płonne where Maria Dąbrowska was writing her most popular novel “Noce I Dnie” and which she many times recalled in her “Diaries”. In the village of Płonne there are other attractions to be admired and these are: the park formerly belonging to the manor, the gothic church and the statue of colonel Jan Dziewanowski, the commander officer of the famous charge of the Polish army at Samosierra, who was born here. Within the borders of the commune of Zbójno, in the very heart of the ancient land of Dobrzyń, in the village of Obory, in magnificent surroundings there stand calced Carmelite Friars’ church and monastery which have been towering above the neighbourhood for nearly 400 years. The location of Obory has been fascinating and captivating the visitors for ages. The unique location contributed greatly to the names given to the district often referred to as Kalwaria Oborska or Szwajcaria Dobrzyńska. In the baroque church the statue of Virgin Mary in Mourning has been continuously worshipped. The renowned holy figure still draws attention of legions of pilgrims. The district of Golub-Dobrzyń abounds in monumental churches which are situated mostly in big villades. The gothic churches in Radomin, Ostrowite, Wrocki, Ciechocin, Chełmoń and the baroque churches in Działyń and Dulsk are numbered among the most interesting ones. Numerous mansions and palaces, and particularly the palace-park complexes in Sokołowo, Piątkowo and Szafarnia are also worthy of tourists’ notice. Nature values also contribue greatly to the attractiveness of the region. Among the multitude of lakes the best managed are lakes Okonin and Grodno, which in summer time attract crowds of tourists craving for a peaceful rest at the lakeside. Spectacular landscapes can also be admired at lakes Wojnowskie, Wielickie, Słupno and many others. The lakes mentioned above make a real paradise for fishing fans while amateurs of mushroom picking and hunting may pursue their passions in the woods of the district, which cover the area of about 11000 ha.

11. Another interesting tourist spot is the valley of the Drwęca river, which,together with its tributaries: the Ruziec and the Rypienica build an ichtyologic nature reserve,established in 1961 in order to preserve the fish of the Salmonidae family. On the slopes ofthe valley there is a nature reserve “Bobrowisko” where numerous species of rare animals andplants can be found. There are over 50 monuments of nature registered in the district, the mostattractive of which are 9 larches on Larch Hill in Płonne. The Drwęca has been used as acanoeing route for many years with national and international canoeing races organised hereregularly.To other interesting monuments of nature in the district of Golub-Dobrzyńone must count beech-tree alleys in Radomino with 585 monumental trees and the uniqueforms of the earth’s surface called drumliny fields, located near Zbójno.

12. We want to invite you to the Golub-Dobrzyń District !