Within its borders Szczecin has a lake larger than many of the lakes on Masurian postcards. According to Wikipedia, Dąbie has a water surface of 54.08 km², which puts it fourth in Poland and first in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. In the ranking of the country's largest lakes given by Wikipedia, it it is behind Śniardwy, Mamry and Łebsko. The lake lies entirely within the city limits and, according to the same entry, occupies 18 per cent of its area.

Two lakes in one

Dąbie is divided into the northern Dąbie Wielkie (Great Dąbie) and the southern Dąbie Małe (Small Dąbie). It has a well-developed shoreline, up to 15 km long and up to 7.5 km wide. It is shallow: the average depth is, according to Wikipedia, 2.61 m, and the greatest 12.5 m. The volume of water was estimated at 129.5 million m³ according to data from 1996.

It is a delta lake. Wikipedia describes it as a former bay of the Szczecin Lagoon, cut off by the delta of the Ina. From the south it is fed by the Regalica, branching off the East Oder, and from the west the Duńczyca and the Święta flow in, which link the lake with the West Oder. The Płonia flows into the southern bay, that is, Dąbie Małe. In the northern part the channels Iński Nurt, Czapina and Babina allow water to be exchanged with the Oder.

The canals connecting the Oder with the lake created a dozen or so islands with a total area of 1,389 ha. The largest are Dębina (516 ha) and Czarnołęka (270 ha), and alongside them Mewia Wyspa, Radolin and Ostrów Grabowski, according to the Słownik geograficzno-krajoznawczy Polski (Geographical and Regional Dictionary of Poland) cited in Wikipedia.

The only lake for seagoing ships

Through Dąbie runs a fairway 14.5 km long, 150 m wide and 10 m deep. It links the port of Schwedt on the Oder with the Pomeranian Bay. According to Wikipedia this is the only lake in Poland accessible to ocean-going ships, so alongside sailing boats, vessels bound for the port of Szczecin and upriver pass this way. The lake has navigability class Vb and is on the list of inland waterways. For this reason the water administrator, that is, the regional water management authority, has not created a fishing district on it.

Birds and the quieter side of the lake

Dąbie lies entirely within the Lower Oder Valley special bird protection area, as Wikipedia states. On the lake also lies Lubczyna, a village in Goleniów municipality. According to Wikipedia there is a wide, sandy beach there, and the bathing area is supervised. Alongside operate Marina Lubczyna, a yacht harbour and mooring, and the village is the base of the sailing section of the Goleniów Youth Sports Centre.

Moorings and sailors

On the shore there are, according to Wikipedia, six marinas, two sailing moorings of associations and two tourist moorings. Some belong to associations, some to private owners and some to the local authority. The largest concentration lies on the east side of the city, where the branches of the Oder join the lake, along Przestrzenna Street.

Euro Jachtklub Pogoń describes regattas on its website, among them the International Autumn Regatta, whose last stage is the race for the Blue Riband of Lake Dąbie. The website counts them in successive editions and keeps a gallery of them. The marina also lies on the West Pomeranian Sailing Trail, which leads from Berlin to the Baltic.

Dąbie as a town on the lake

The name of the lake is older than the settlement within the borders of Szczecin. According to Wikipedia the first mention dates from 1226 as stagnum Damb, that is, the Dąb lake. Until 1945 it bore the German name Dammscher See, and the name Dąbie was introduced officially in 1949. In 1283 Szczecin acquired the lake, as Wikipedia states in the entry on the city, and in 1939 it was incorporated entirely into Greater Szczecin.

The former town of Dąbie is linked with the lake. The Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the oldest church of the former Dąbie, and its construction in granite began, according to Wikipedia, in 1268. The present neo-Gothic form comes from the rebuilding after the fire of 1863. Nearby stands the Hunting Lodge, a Renaissance residence of the Pomeranian dukes rebuilt after the fire in Dąbie in 1592, today with a branch of the public library.