Węgorzewo

Sister cities

• Rottenburg am Neckar
• Chernyakhovsk
• Yavoriv
• Leffrinckoucke
• Nemenčinė

History

The town was first mentioned in a 1335 chronicle as Angirburg, or "eel castle", a settlement of the Teutonic Knights with a block house, a palisade, and a watchtower. A 1341 document reported that the Teutonic Order had bestowed land on the river Angerapp (Angrapa) upon twelve Old Prussians for their loyal service. The Grand Duke of Lithuania, Kęstutis, destroyed the castle in 1365, although it was rebuilt in 1398. After the subsequent Thirteen Years' War, since 1466, it formed part of Poland as a fief. The land around the castle began to be settled by the end of the 15th century. As it was primarily farmland, the Lake Mamry was blocked up to allow the construction of a watermill. Ca. 1510 a locality known as Neudorf ("new village") or Gerothwol had developed near the Angerburg. After the foundation of the Duchy of Prussia as a fief of the Kingdom of Poland in 1525, Angerburg/Węgobork became the seat of a district head. It was granted town rights in 1571. The Polish inhabitants called the city by its Polish name Węgobork. A large part of the town was destroyed by a fire in 1608, including a wooden church and the 20-year-old town hall. Being situated in Masuria, in the transition area with the ethnographic region of Lithuania Minor, Węgobork/Angerburg had a Polish majority with sizable minorities of Germans and Lithuanians. The town suffered from the Swedish-Polish Wars, attacks by the Tatars, and plague epidemics, the last outbreak of which occurred in 1710 and claimed 1,111 victims. To help repopulate the town, 48 people from Salzburg, Austria were resettled here in 1732. The Lithuanian minority diminished after the 16th and 17th centuries, while Poles still formed the majority of the district's population in the early 19th century (52% in 1825). Angerburg became…

Most-observed species

• Culicoides dewulfi Goetghebuer, 1936

  Culicoides dewulfi Goetghebuer, 1936 · Insecta
  72
• Culicoides chiopterus (Meigen, 1830)

  Culicoides chiopterus (Meigen, 1830) · Insecta
  72
• Common Crane

  Grus grus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  67
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  46
• Great Cormorant/European Shag

  Phalacrocorax carbo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  36
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  36
• Mute Swan

  Cygnus olor (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  36
• Great Crested Grebe

  Podiceps cristatus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  33