Kashubia (Kaszuby)

Roughly 100,000 people speak Kashubian, the only regional language in Poland with legal recognition, and a Polish speaker cannot understand it without study. Its speakers, the Kashubs, are indigenous Pomeranians; their language is West Slavic, related to Polish but shaped by Low German and the extinct Pomeranian (Slovincian) tongues. That makes Kashubia, their ethnocultural region of Pomerania, a living "language island" and the natural extension of the platform's existing language-islands-of-Europe theme.

The landscape is the Kashubian Lake District, a young post-glacial terrain of moraine hills and lakes nicknamed "Kashubian Switzerland" (Szwajcaria Kaszubska), its highest, most scenic core running from Kartuzy to Kościerzyna. Kartuzy, about 30 km south-west of Gdańsk, is the informal capital, named for the Carthusian monastery that gave the town its identity and the distinctive coffin-lid-shaped collegiate church roof; it holds the principal Kashubian Museum. Kościerzyna styles itself the "heart of Kashubia."

The cultural keystone is the Kashubian Ethnographic Park at Wdzydze (Wdzydze Kiszewskie), Poland's oldest open-air museum, begun in 1906 by Teodora and Izydor Gulgowski, with some 40 historic timber buildings (farms, manors, windmills, churches) on a lakeside site. The region also gives its name to the truskawka kaszubska, the Kashubian strawberry, an EU-registered PGI product since 2009.

For the platform, Kashubia anchors Border Country through language and identity, and Craft Villages through embroidery, ceramics and the Wdzydze park's preserved rural crafts.

June into early September is the window for the lakes, the hills and the Kashubian strawberry season, which peaks in late June and July; Kartuzy holds a Strawberry Festival (Truskobranie) in summer (check date). September is calmer, with the lakes still warm and the harvest in. Winter is quiet, when the open-air museum and many lakeside facilities run reduced hours (check ahead). The summer months are also when agritourism around the lakes is in full swing, and when it books up; reserve early for July and August. Time a trip to the strawberry season if the food angle draws you, but the festival dates are summer-specific and should be confirmed before planning around them.

Rail does serve the region from the Tricity (Gdańsk and Gdynia). Kartuzy is reachable by the Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway (PKM / Polregio) from Gdańsk and Gdynia, a real, usable rail link of roughly an hour (check operator and time) and the strongest train option. Kościerzyna is also on the rail network from Gdynia, with modest frequency (check ahead); it has a Railway Museum of its own. Wdzydze, the open-air museum, is not directly on rail: reach the area by train to Kościerzyna, then a local bus or taxi for the final stretch to Wdzydze Kiszewskie. No pretending about the interior: the deep lake-district villages (Wdzydze, Chmielno, Sierakowice) generally need a bus or car for the last leg even when you arrive by train. From Gdańsk, rail to Kartuzy is the easy train-first entry; a car or local buses are realistic for touring the dispersed lakes.

Lakeside agritourism farms and guesthouses (gospodarstwa agroturystyczne) are the regional norm and the recommended slow option, clustered around Chmielno, Wdzydze and the Kartuzy and Kościerzyna lakes. These are often small and seasonal, with high turnover. Skip the hunt for a specific name that may have changed and go through the regional tourism organisation and the agritourism listings instead: pomorskie.travel is the official Pomeranian tourism portal, and the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association and local information centres in Kartuzy and Kościerzyna can point to current, operating properties. In the two towns themselves there are small hotels and pensions in the centres. Whatever you choose, secure a room well before July and August, when the lakes and the strawberry season fill the guesthouses.

The headline is the truskawka kaszubska, the Kashubian strawberry (PGI). Eat it in season, late June into July: fresh, with cream, or on plińce (potato pancakes). Beyond the berry, the table is country fare: czarnina, the traditional duck-blood soup; plińce or pliszcze, the Kashubian potato pancakes; smoked freshwater fish from the lakes (eel, trout, vendace); and rye-based country baking (check local naming). Buying the PGI strawberry and local food directly from producers is both the best way to taste the region and a direct support to the smallholders who grow it. Ask for it by its Kashubian name, kaszëbskô malëna, as a small courtesy to a living language.

Walk the Kashubian Ethnographic Park at Wdzydze slowly. The lakeside open-air museum, Poland's oldest, founded in 1906, holds craft demonstrations and timber architecture, and it keeps the Gulgowski legacy alive. Farms, a church, a tavern and artisan workshops stand along marked paths; allow about three hours. From May to September you tour it yourself with a map, while outside those months access is by guided tour and some buildings close, so check before travelling. The museum also runs workshops in weaving, paper-flower making, glass painting and embroidery, along with short introductions to the Kashubian language, and its summer fair, the Jarmark Wdzydzki, reaches its fifty-first edition in 2026.

At the Kashubian Museum in Kartuzy, take in the embroidery, ceramics and costume, and use it to understand the language and identity before you tour. See the Carthusian collegiate church in Kartuzy with its famous coffin-shaped roof, and the Refektarz gallery in the same monastery complex. In Chmielno, visit the Kashubian ceramics workshops of the Necel family tradition, where the standard motifs, the Kashubian star, fish scales, tulips, lilies, wreaths, lilac branches, wavy lines and dots, are worth learning to read before you buy. Then cycle or paddle the Kashubian Lake District, the lakes and Switzerland-of-Kashubia hills around Kartuzy and Kościerzyna, with the Kashubian cycle route accessible by train from the Tricity; the Kółko Raduńskie circuit on the Raduńskie lakes is the classic kayak line.

Much of this sits inside the Kashubian Landscape Park, established in 1983 across some 332 square kilometres and holding twelve nature reserves. Its high point, literally, is Wieżyca at 329 m, the highest ground in the Kashubian Lake District and in the whole Central European Lowland, topped by the John Paul II observation tower and ringed by forest on every side. The same hill carries the Koszałkowo-Wieżyca centre, the largest ski area in Pomorskie and a year-round activity site, which makes a winter visit a real proposition rather than a write-off. In Kartuzy itself, Jezioro Klasztorne Duże has a supervised bathing beach and the Złota Góra water-sports centre, and the town's Jarmark Kaszubski is a summer fixture (check current dates). For a slow back-road detour, the Sierakowice and Lipnica area is associated with the world's-longest-village curiosity (check which village currently holds the claim).

• Language: Polish; Kashubian is the recognised regional language and appears on bilingual signage — using a Kashubian greeting is welcomed
• Currency: Polish złoty (PLN), not the euro
• Plug: European type E
• Getting there: The Tricity (Gdańsk) is the logical gateway: train to Kartuzy, then car or bus for the lakes
• Seasons & hours: Strawberry season and festival dates are summer-specific (check ahead); agritourism is seasonal; Lake guesthouses fill in July and August, so plan early
• Nearest major city and hospital: Gdańsk