Blue Velo - Stage 5

V Gryfino - Trzcińsko-Zdrój [43 km]

For the most part, the trail uses the old railway embankments, partly also roads with little traffic, dedicated bicycle infrastructure or forest roads. The route is mostly asphalt. There are some short gravel fragments, mainly forest sections, and some made of concrete.

In Szczawno we enter the bicycle path on the former Gryfino-Swobnica railway line, going along the Tywa River and lakes. On the Tywa river, you can find the remains of dams that used to power mills. Behind Lubanowo on the left, you can see the ruins of a windmill in Otoki. It was built in the end of the 19th century and operated until the 1960s. A few kilometers further, we enter the "Szczecin Tuscany": the Turnau vineyard area in Baniewice. The hilly landscape guarantees sunny, southern slopes, mainly planted with solaris and johanniter grape variety, as well as Riesling, Hibernal, Seyval Blanc, Rondo, Regent and Cabernet. The Turnau family, including the famous singer Grzegorz, have been growing grapevines here only since 2010, but their wines have already gained a considerable reputation. Chardonnay 2020 has even been selected as the best white wine in Poland in the most prestigious wine competition in the country.

You can visit the vineyard, as well as taste the wines and cheeses produced here - you need to make an appointment for a three-hour tour, but you can also come here entirely spontaneously. In the nineteenth-century winery building, there is a company shop, where you can buy a bottle of alcohol. Wine is difficult to carry in panniers (especially since there is a slightly bumpy gravel section between Swobnica and Strzeszów), so you can consider staying overnight in the vineyard.

It is a pity that you cannot sleep at the castle in Swobnica, as it would be one of the biggest attractions of the region. From the first half of the thirteenth century, Swobnica, located behind Lake Długie, and the surrounding areas belonged to the Knights Templar, whose local headquarters were in the village of Rurka. After the dissolution of the order in 1312, the property of the Knights Templar was taken over by the Knights Hospitaller, who moved the seat to nearby Swobnica. The building with a 35-meter tower was completed at the end of the 14th century. It survived the war without major damages, then it served as the headquarters of the State Agricultural Farm, which had a granary in the castle. The worst period was the 1990s, when the building, sold to private hands, was rapidly deteriorating. The Banie community regained the ruin only in 2011, after the oldest wing had collapsed. In 2013, the renovation of the tower was completed, which today is the only part of the building open to the public. In the nearby Rurka, there are no traces of the Templar fortress, but their chapel from 1248 has been preserved, resembling English Romanesque buildings: a sandstone chapel in Aston Eyre near Birmingham or a single-nave stone church in Goodnestone in Kent.