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

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

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

Noteć The Noteć (; , ) is a river in central Poland with a length of (7th longest) and a basin area of .Krzyż Wielkopolski. The Drawa is a right-bank tributary of

Noteć The Noteć (; , ) is a river in central Poland with a length of (7th longest) and a basin area of .river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

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 and Drawski forest. The section from Czaplinek to

Noteć The 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, Korytnica, Mierzęcka Struga, Płociczna, Pokrętna, Słopica, Wąsowa. The main streams of the river are the Bagnica, Drawsko, Drawka, Głęboka, Miedzniki, Moczel, Pełknica, Radówka, Sitna, 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, Rzepowskie, Lubie, Krosino, Wielkie and Małe Dębno can be found.

Towns

* Czaplinek *

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

* Drawsko Pomorskie * Prostynia * Drawno *

Stare Osieczno Stare Osieczno ()''Ortsnamenverzeichnis der Ortschaften jenseits von Oder und Neiße'' by M. Kaemmerer is a village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ...

* Przedborowo * Krzyż Wielkopolski

Flora and fauna

The river contains over thirty species of fish, including the

Rutilus ''Rutilus'', commonly known as roaches, is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This genus is a widely distributed lineage of leuciscids and r ...

perch Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...

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,

burbot The burbot (''Lota lota''), also known as bubbot, mariah, loche, cusk, freshwater cod, freshwater ling, freshwater cusk, the lawyer, coney-fish, lingcod, or eelpout, is a species of coldwater ray-finned fish native to the subarctic regions of ...

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

, 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 cyprini ...

bream Bream (, ) are species of freshwater fish belonging to a variety of genera including '' Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), '' Ballerus'', '' Blicca'', '' Brama'', '' Chilotilapia'', '' Etelis'', '' Lepomis'', '' Gymnocranius'', ...

, spirlin 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 bull trout, sewin (Wales ...

common minnow ''Phoxinus phoxinus'' (known colloquially as the Eurasian minnow, minnow, Channel minnow, or common minnow) is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, minnows and related fishes. It i ...

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. The Drawa also hosts buzzards,

red algae Red algae, or Rhodophyta (, ; ), make up one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta comprises one of the largest Phylum, phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 recognized species within over 900 Genus, genera amidst ongoing taxon ...

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

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 am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. Navigation of the river continued until

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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

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.