Town charter and two lakes

Wałcz lies on two lakes that are within the town boundaries. According to Wikipedia, Raduń covers 227.12 ha and Lake Zamkowe 133.01 ha. The entry on Lake Raduń itself gives a wider range, from 197.5 to 229.7 ha, because measurements vary. Wikipedia also writes that lakes and rivers occupy about 11.2 per cent of the town's area.

The town was chartered in 1303. According to Wikipedia, on 23 April of that year the Margraves of Brandenburg issued a privilege for founding the town of Arnskrone near Lake Wolcen, together with town rights, land and two lakes. The second of them, Lake Zamkowe, cuts into the town's built-up area from the north, according to Wikipedia. It has a sailing marina on the northern shore, and its waters are stocked with fish by an angling club.

On Lake Raduń

A longer walk leads to Lake Raduń. The shoreline is more than 19 km long, and along the water there are bathing areas, campsites and sports centres. The lake is a narrow ribbon lake, and at its narrowest point its shores are linked by the Kłosowski Bridge, an 85-metre pedestrian suspension bridge. According to Wikipedia, a wooden bridge was built here at the end of the 19th century, and the present steel one was built in 1978 on the same spot. The entry on the lake calls it the only suspension bridge in Poland situated over a lake.

On Lake Raduń there is an Olympic Training Centre of the Central Sports Centre (COS). According to Wikipedia, immediately after the war, thanks to the work of forester Winand Osiński and coach Jan Mulak, the Polish athletics team known as the Wunderteam began training here. The Wałcz Loop, a canoe route through six lakes, also starts from the lake. Other bodies of water nearby are Lake Zdbiczno, which Wikipedia calls the second largest lake of the Wałcz Plain, and Lake Dębno, through which the Rurzyca flows.

Market square, town hall and churches

The town centre is very compact. On Wolności Square stands the town hall from 1890, built of brick, with a small tower that has become its symbol. The heritage register describes its style as neo-Renaissance and Wikipedia as eclectic. Next to it rises St Nicholas' Church, neo-Gothic, built in 1863-1865 and consecrated in 1866.

A few dozen metres from the market square is a second neo-Gothic church, St Anthony's Church, built in 1900-1903 for the Protestant congregation and today looked after by the Capuchins. The heritage register gives the years 1902-1903. Two Orthodox churches in Wałcz were created in buildings of other denominations. The Church of the Holy Trinity is housed in a former Protestant cemetery chapel from the 19th century, which the Orthodox parish took over in 1947. The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is Greek Catholic and was built in 1923-1924 as a Lutheran hospital chapel, and a Greek Catholic parish has operated here since 1959.

A museum in a manor house

The Wałcz Land Museum is housed in a classicist manor house from the early 19th century, entered in the heritage register. The year the museum was founded varies between sources: Wikidata and the description of the site give 1982, while a scholarly article of the University of Szczecin speaks of an opening on 28 May 1984, after efforts that had lasted since 1967. The permanent exhibition leads from prehistory to the post-war years and also includes memorabilia of the breaking of the Pomeranian Wall in 1945.