Leśniewo (german: Fürstenau) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the administrative district of Gmina Srokowo, within

Kętrzyn County __NOTOC__ Kętrzyn County ( pl, powiat kętrzyński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, northern Poland, on the border with Russia. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a resu ...

Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship or Warmia-Masuria Province or Warmia-Mazury Province (in pl, Województwo warmińsko-mazurskie, is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Olsztyn. The voivodeship has an are ...

, in northern Poland, close to the border with the

Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast (russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, translit=Kaliningradskaya oblast') is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and administr ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It lies approximately east of Srokowo, north-east of

Kętrzyn Kętrzyn (, until 1946 ''Rastembork''; german: link=yes, Rastenburg ) is a town in northeastern Poland with 27,478 inhabitants (2019). Situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (since 1999), Kętrzyn was previously in Olsztyn Voivodeship (197 ...

, and north-east of the regional capital

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ; german: Allenstein ; Old Prussian: ''Alnāsteini'' * Latin: ''Allenstenium'', ''Holstin'') is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. ...

. The village has a population of 330. To the northwest of the village there is Diabla Góra. To the west of the village there is the

Masurian Canal The Masurian Canal ( pl, Kanał Mazurski, russian: Канал Мазурский, german: Masurischer Kanal) is an unfinished 50.4 km long canal connecting the Łyna River in Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia (a tributary of the Pregolya) and Lake Ma ...

, near the village there are two unfinished

sluices Sluice ( ) is a word for a channel controlled at its head by a movable gate which is called a sluice gate. A sluice gate is traditionally a wood or metal barrier sliding in grooves that are set in the sides of the waterway and can be considered ...

: Leśniewo Górne and Leśniewo Dolne. Both were constructed during the period of

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

in 1906 and continued in the

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

period in the 1940s. Because of both World Wars, both attempts did not manage to finish those sluices. A legend says that they were to be used for

U-boats U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare rol ...

that would sail for repairs through the canal inland or for barges. It is not known what would they be used for exactly. They are about 45 meters long in their current state. Had it been finished it could have been larger. Today it is a tourist attraction.

References

Villages in Kętrzyn County {{Kętrzyn-geo-stub