The Drawa () is a river and popular aquatic trail in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, 192 km long. The surface of its catchment area amounts to 3291 km². The Drawa begins its course at Krzywe Lake and ends it in

Noteć Noteć (; , ) is a river in central Poland with a length of (7th longest) and a basin area of .Krzyż Wielkopolski Krzyż Wielkopolski (german: Kreuz (Ostbahn)) is a town in Poland, with 6,176 inhabitants (2019) in the Czarnków-Trzcianka County, Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is an important railroad junction, with two major lines crossing there - the Berli ...

. The Drawa is a right-bank tributary of

Noteć Noteć (; , ) is a river in central Poland with a length of (7th longest) and a basin area of .river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in Pojezierze Drawskie.

Geography

The Drawa flows across regions including Pojezierze Drawskie, Równina Drawska and partly near Pojezierze Wałeckie and Kotlina Gorzowska. The source of the Drawa is in nature reserve Dolina Pięciu Jezior. Then, the river flows across Drawski Landscape Park,

Drawieński National Park Drawa National Park ( pl, Drawieński Park Narodowy) is located in north-western Poland, on the border of Greater Poland, Lubusz and West Pomeranian Voivodeships. The park is a part of the huge Drawsko Forest (Puszcza Drawska), which lies on the ...

and Drawski forest. The section from

Czaplinek Czaplinek (german: Tempelburg; csb, Czôplënkò) is a town in Drawsko County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, with 7,012 inhabitants as of December 2021. The former name of ''Tempelburg'' refers to the Templar Knights, which settled near ...

Noteć Noteć (; , ) is a river in central Poland with a length of (7th longest) and a basin area of .Karol Wojtyła Silver Route.

Tributaries

The biggest tributaries of the Drawa are the

Kokna Kokni, Kokna, Kukna is an Indian Adivasi tribal community found in Sahyadri-Satpura Ranges of Maharashtra (mostly residing in Nandurbar and Dhule districts - Sakri, Navapur talukas) and in Gujarat (mostly residing in Ahwa- Dang, Navsari and Val ...

, Korytnica, Mierzęcka Struga, Płociczna, Pokrętna, Słopica,

Wąsowa Wąsowa is a river of Poland. It flows out of the lake Wąsosze and is a left tributary of the River Drawa The Drawa () is a river and popular aquatic trail in Poland, 192 km long. The surface of its catchment area amounts to 3291 km ...

. The main streams of the river are the Bagnica, Drawsko, Drawka, Głęboka, Miedzniki, Moczel, Pełknica, Radówka,

Sitna The Sitna is a right tributary of the river Jijia in Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary ...

, Studzienica, Sucha, Szczuczna, Wilżnica. One canal, Prostynia, flows into the Drawa.

Lakes

The Drawa flows through many lakes. In the upper region of the river there are Górne, Krąg, Długie, Głębokie, . Further down the river, the lakes Prosino, Żerdno,

Drawsko Lake Drawsko (german: Dratzigsee) is a lake located nearby the town of Czaplinek in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. It is 1,956 hectares large, 12,6 km long and 3.9 km wide. Maximum depth is 79.7 m, making it the second deepest lake ...

, Rzepowskie, Lubie, Krosino, Wielkie and Małe Dębno can be found.

Towns

Złocieniec Złocieniec (; formerly german: Falkenburg) is a town in northwestern Poland. Located in West Pomeranian Voivodeship's Drawsko County since 1999, it was previously a part of Koszalin Voivodeship (1950–1998). The population of Złocieniec is a ...

Drawsko Pomorskie Drawsko Pomorskie (until 1948 pl, Drawsko; formerly german: Dramburg) is a town in Drawsko County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland, the administrative seat of Drawsko County and the urban-rural commune of Gmina Drawsko Po ...

* Prostynia *

Drawno Drawno (german: Neuwedell; csb, Nowi Wedel) is a town in Choszczno County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, with 2,219 inhabitants as of December 2021. The headquarters of the Drawa National Park (''Drawieński Park Narodowy'') are located h ...

Stare Osieczno Stare Osieczno is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Dobiegniew, within Strzelce-Drezdenko County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It lies approximately east of Dobiegniew, north-east of Strzelce Krajeńskie, and north-e ...

* Przedborowo *

Krzyż Wielkopolski Krzyż Wielkopolski (german: Kreuz (Ostbahn)) is a town in Poland, with 6,176 inhabitants (2019) in the Czarnków-Trzcianka County, Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is an important railroad junction, with two major lines crossing there - the Berli ...

Flora and fauna

The river contains over thirty species of fish, including the

Rutilus ''Rutilus'' is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae found in Eurasia. This genus is a widely distributed lineage of cyprinids and ranges from West Europe to East Siberia. Species In FishBase (2022), nine species are included in the genus: * ...

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

gudgeon A gudgeon is a socket-like, cylindrical (i.e., ''female'') fitting attached to one component to enable a pivoting or hinging connection to a second component. The second component carries a pintle fitting, the male counterpart to the gudgeon, ...

European chub ''Squalius cephalus'' is a European species of freshwater fish in the carp family Cyprinidae. It frequents both slow and moderate rivers, as well as canals and still waters of various kinds. This species is referred to as the common chub, Europe ...

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments di ...

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

, grayling,

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprinid ...

bream Bream ( ) are species of freshwater and marine fish belonging to a variety of genera including ''Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), ''Acanthopagrus'', '' Argyrops'', ''Blicca'', '' Brama'', ''Chilotilapia'', '' Etelis'', ''Lepo ...

spirlin ''Alburnoides bipunctatus'', known vernacularly as the schneider, spirlin, bleak, riffle minnow, and others, is a species of small (9-cm average length) freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is found in Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Azerb ...

and silver bream. The river is also a place of living of the rare specimens –

sea trout Sea trout is the common name usually applied to anadromous (sea-run) forms of brown trout (''Salmo trutta''), and is often referred to as ''Salmo trutta'' morpha ''trutta''. Other names for anadromous brown trout are sewin (Wales), peel or peal ...

common minnow The Eurasian minnow, minnow, or common minnow (''Phoxinus phoxinus'') is a small species of freshwater fish in the carp family Cyprinidae. It is the type species of genus ''Phoxinus''. It is ubiquitous throughout much of Eurasia, from Britain and ...

european bullhead The European bullhead (''Cottus gobio'') is a freshwater fish that is widely distributed in Europe, mainly in rivers. It is a member of the family Cottidae, a type of sculpin. It is also known as the miller's thumb, freshwater sculpin, common bu ...

and

vimba vimba ''Vimba vimba'', called also the vimba bream, vimba, zanthe, or zarte, is a European fish species in the family Cyprinidae. It largely lives in the sea but makes an annual migration up-river each year to breed. Description The vimba bream was at ...

. The Drawa also hosts

buzzard Buzzard is the common name of several species of birds of prey. ''Buteo'' species * Archer's buzzard (''Buteo archeri'') * Augur buzzard (''Buteo augur'') * Broad-winged hawk (''Buteo platypterus'') * Common buzzard (''Buteo buteo'') * Eastern ...

red algae Red algae, or Rhodophyta (, ; ), are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta also comprises one of the largest phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 currently recognized species with taxonomic revisions ongoing. The majority ...

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

s, spargania and

potamogeton ''Potamogeton'' is a genus of aquatic, mostly freshwater, plants of the family Potamogetonaceae. Most are known by the common name pondweed, although many unrelated plants may be called pondweed, such as Canadian pondweed (''Elodea canadensis'' ...

History

From the 14th century, the river has been used as a navigational route. Since 1700, the Drawa has been used for drifting honey from Drawsko to

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. Navigation of the river continued until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1974, on the river route was founded a nature reserve Drawa and in 1990

Attractions

The Drawa flows near various historical buildings. One of them is Drahimski Castle, which was turned into the museum. The castle was built in 1360 by the Order of Saint John. There are also interesting bunkers near camping in Kotlina. On Drawa's route Wedel's Castle, from the 14th century, can also be found. On one of the banks, Wydrzy Głaz can be found ( Moczele"Wydrzy Głaz"
). On the section of the river from Lubie to Prostynia, rafting and canoeing are forbidden because the Drawski Training Ground is located in that area.

References

{{reflist * http://www.mrowka.pl/drawa.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20120123053451/http://www.kajaki-sikory.pl/pl/spywy/rzekadrawa * http://www.dpn.pl/drawa * Galiński Z., ''Przewodnik dla kajakarzy. Drawa'', Pascal, 2003.