Czorsztyn Lake

The Czorsztyn reservoir was filled in 1997 behind a dam on the Dunajec at Niedzica, completed in 1995 - 56 metres high and 400 long, built mainly to hold back floods, with a 92-megawatt power plant - and it flooded the valley floor including the village of Maniowy, whose inhabitants were moved to a new settlement. What it produced is a lake of usually about eleven square kilometres, up to fifty metres deep, in the Pieniny foothills with two castles standing above it on opposite banks, which is the arrangement people come for: Czorsztyn, a ruin on the northern shore, and Niedzica, restored and complete, on the southern, built by rival powers when the river below was a frontier. A ferry crosses between them in season. The lake is used for sailing, windsurfing and swimming and the Dunajec raft trip starts downstream of the dam.

The landscape

• Two facing castles - a ruin at Czorsztyn and the restored Niedzica across the water.
• A drowned valley - the reservoir filled in 1997 over the old village of Maniowy.
• A frontier river - the castles built by rival powers when the Dunajec was a border.
• A ferry between them - crossing in season, with sailing and swimming on the lake.

When to go

May to September. A day, taking in both castles.

Before you go

Ferry operation is seasonal and weather-dependent. Niedzica charges entry and queues in summer. Water levels vary and the shoreline can be muddy.

Nearby

The Pieniny and Trzy Korony are east; the Dunajec raft trip starts below the dam.

Key facts