A hiking trail runs around Lake Kosenow, inviting visitors to enjoy walks in every season. In Gützkow, it is joined by a swimming spot popular in summer, St. Nicolai Church and a Slavic castle rampart near the old town. This brings two different highlights together: time by the water and the history of a place whose buildings and archaeological finds point to different eras.
Walk around Lake Kosenow and swim in summer
The circular trail around Lake Kosenow invites visitors to take walks throughout the year. The lake’s swimming spot is popular with young and old alike in summer, giving swimming a seasonal focus without limiting walks to a particular time of year. Lake Kosenow is also a popular destination for residents and visitors to the town of Gützkow and the surrounding communities. This gives you a clear distinction to consider when planning your trip: the trail offers an opportunity to walk in every season, while the swimming spot adds an extra highlight in summer. This makes it easy to choose how to balance walking and swimming at Lake Kosenow.
Church, castle chapel and castle rampart
The parish church of St. Nicolai can be placed in context by looking at its predecessor and the oldest parts of the present building. The oldest parts date from the mid- or second half of the 13th century. The present building is closely connected with the founding of Gützkow as a German town and replaced a church from the 12th century, which was probably repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. The dates therefore refer to different construction phases: the 12th century relates to the predecessor building, and the 13th century to the oldest parts of the present church.
The castle chapel offers a different architectural highlight. Built in 1859 from yellow bricks in Neo-Gothic forms, it was reconstructed from 1996 to 2003. Alongside the layered history of St. Nicolai, the castle chapel provides a later highlight with a clearly defined date.
A mighty Slavic castle rampart lies near the old town. It was also used during the period of German law and later built over with a stone castle. Limited excavations in 1935 uncovered old plank pathways and five superimposed log buildings in continuity of place—a sequence at the same location. The rampart’s history therefore involves not only Slavic and later use, but also specific pathways and construction phases. Unlike the construction dates of the church and castle chapel, what matters here is how the site developed through several phases of use.
Water touring and the regional context
The Gützkow waterway rest area is located on the Swinow and has comfortable sanitary facilities. Water touring thus adds its own planning perspective to the highlights around Lake Kosenow and the historic buildings and archaeological sites.
Across the wider Vorpommern-Greifswald destination, the three nature parks cover almost 40 percent of the district’s area. This district-wide figure offers an additional sense of the landscape to consider when planning a trip in the region.
Discover more destinations: Lühmannsdorf, Schmatzin, Groß Kiesow, Gribow, Wrangelsburg, Rubkow, Klein Bünzow, Groß Polzin.
See the full travel overview: Amt Züssow.
