Lagow

Lagow sits on a narrow isthmus between lakes Lagowskie and Trzesniowskie in wooded moraine country, and on it stands a castle built in the fourteenth century by the Knights Hospitaller, who held a commandery here - a square brick building with a tall keep, later given Renaissance and baroque work and now run as a hotel with the courtyard and tower open. The tower view takes in both lakes and the surrounding beech woods, which are the other reason to come: the Lagow landscape park protects hills that reach unusual relief for western Poland. The village has two medieval gates, the Polish and the Marchian, on the road through it. Since 1969 Lagow has hosted the Lubuskie Film Summer, one of the oldest continuously running film festivals in Poland, held each summer, which briefly fills a village of a few hundred people with the Polish film industry.

What to look for

• A Hospitaller castle - fourteenth-century brick with a tall climbable keep.
• Two lakes and an isthmus - the neck of land the castle was built to hold.
• Two medieval gates - the Polish and Marchian gates on the village street.
• The Lubuskie Film Summer - a festival here every summer since 1969.

When to go

May to September. Half a day.

What to expect

The castle is a hotel and interior access is limited to guests and the tower. The village is tiny; festival week overwhelms it. Public transport is poor. Lake beaches are busy in July and August.

Nearby

Swiebodzin is north; the Miedzyrzecz fortified region is west.