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| The Augustow Canal 2020 |
There are only three such channels in the world: Caledonian in Great Britain, Gotha channel in Sweden, and Augustow, located in Poland and Belarus.
A waterway with a total length of about 102 km begins from Lake Serva near the Polish Augustow and runs almost to Belarusian Grodno. Artificial channels 45 km long connected eleven rivers (35 km) and seven lakes (22 km).
The Augustow Canal is an outstanding hydro-technical structure of the 19th century, one of the largest canals in Europe, included in the preliminary UNESCO World Heritage List.
In the 19th century, this man-made waterway connected the basins of the Vistula and Neman rivers, providing access to the Baltic Sea in the north, and to the Black Sea in the south (via the Oginsky Canal, the Dnieper, the Berezinsky water system and the Dvina).
The idea of creating a canal was born back in the 1760s and 70s during the time of King Stanislav Augustus Ponyatovsky. However, construction began only in the 19th century after the introduction of high duties by Prussia for the transportation of goods to the Baltic ports.
The initiator was the Minister of Finance Francis-Xavier Drutsky-Lyubetsky, and the military engineers led by Ignatius Prondzinsky took up the development of the project.
In 1824, the design of the Augustow Canal was approved by Emperor Alexander I. Construction took 15 years: 29 culverting dams, 18 locks, 21 cameras, 14 bridges, 24 facilities for servicing the canal were built.
Nevertheless, his story as an important transport artery for the alloy of wood and goods was short-lived. In 1825, an agreement with Prussia regulated customs duties, and in the second half of the 19th century, the development of railways made the canal unclaimed for transportation.
However, running through the most beautiful places, the Augustow Canal became a tourist mecca. In 1909, the first walking tour took place along the riverbed, and later the horse route opened.
During the First World War, the canal was significantly damaged, including due to defensive structures erected in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In 1920-1939, he again welcomed travelers: two-wheeled steamboats cruised here, kayaking developed, yacht clubs worked, and the grand Sea Festival was held in the area of the Dombrovka gateway. The first tourist guide on the Augustow Canal was published.
During the Great Patriotic War, the hydraulic structures of the canal along which defensive bunkers were built, suffered significantly, and the Chertok distribution gate was completely destroyed.
In 2004 - 2006, the Belarusian section of the canal (22 km) was completely restored. Specialists restored the channel, which has not been used since the 1950s, washed and collapsed sections, ancient hydraulic structures.
Many elements - gateways and plaques with the names of design engineers, wooden columns, and drawbridges - were restored manually and retained their authentic appearance.
Today on the Belarusian part of the ancient canal there are 5 regulating locks, 2 dams, and 4 shipping locks - Nemnovo, Dombrovka, Volkushek, and Kuzhinets.
The largest lock of the Augustow Canal is the four-chamber Nemnovo, whose length is 9.6 m. The water drop is almost 10 m, and the lock takes about an hour.
The Augustow Canal is a great place for outdoor activities, water, walking, and cycling. The amazing beauty of nature attracts thousands of guests here.
The channel runs through the territory of the Republican landscape reserve "Grodno Forest". This is not only one of the most environmentally friendly places in Belarus and the continent, but also the standard of the plain in Central Europe.
In the heart of the reserve - Augustow Forest - one of the largest forests in Europe, located in three countries (Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania) and claiming the status of UNESCO cross-border biosphere reserve.
On the Belarusian land (10% of the forest) there are about 800 species of plants, which is comparable with the Bialowieza Forest and the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve. The age of some trees reaches 250 - 300 years.
More than 10 water routes have been developed on the canal and its tributaries. One of the longest - the transboundary water-bicycle route "Augustow Canal - Belovezhskaya Pushcha" (272, 4 km).
In 2014, after the reconstruction of the last gateway on the Polish side, a water route was opened for the motor yachts Augustow - Grodno - Druskininkai.
Foreigners are required to enter Belarus to visit the Augustow Canal
In the vicinity of the Augustow Canal are interesting monuments of history and architecture of Belarus.
In the village of Nemnovo, the original Gateway caretaker's House, built-in 1830 in the Russian Empire style, has been preserved. And the museum of the Augustow Canal in the building of the former tavern presents ancient maps of the area and canal schemes, hand-written documents, photographs and household items of the 19th century.
In the village of Sopotskin, the layout of the 16th century, the beautiful church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph Kuntsevich, neo-Gothic chapels and the oldest Jewish cemetery (1278) have been preserved. Here is the only street in Belarus of John Paul II.
Along the canal are defensive pillboxes of the Great Patriotic War (“Molotov line”) and forts of the Grodno fortress, included in the list of the historical and cultural heritage of Belarus.
The palace and park ensemble of Volovichi in the village of Svyatsk was designed by the Italian Giuseppe de Sacco. A mysterious legend tells of the appearance of the ghost of a daughter here, whom the father alive walled up in one of the columns of the palace.
The magnificent Drutsky-Gursky estate, a park with valuable plants, and a water system of the 19th century are the main attractions of the village of Radzivilki.
The Augustow Canal, located on the border of neighboring countries - Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania - have long been a place of interesting cultural and sports events.
Every year in August, near the gateway Dombrovka, the festival "August Canal in the Culture of Three Nations" takes place, where original folk groups, musicians, and artists representing their national art come together.
At the festival of folk art "August Channel invites friends" (in May), you can get acquainted with Belarusian culture, master crafts, and taste national cuisine.
