Bagry Wielkie City Park
Explorer of Kraków's Parks · no. 53
Park type: water. In this park you can collect a stamp in the "Explorer of Kraków's Parks" campaign run by Kraków's Municipal Greenery Authority (ZZM).
History
Bagry Lake lies in Podgórze, between Lipska and Wielicka Streets. It was created in 1945, when water flooded the pits of a former gravel works. Before that, prisoners of the Baudienst camp No. 108 were forced to work there, and the gravel dug out was used to expand the Kraków Prokocim railway station. After the camp was closed in 1944, pumps still drained the water into the Vistula, but the Germans switched them off as they left Kraków, and the pit quickly filled up. The name comes from the German word Bagger, meaning excavator. Today it is one of the largest bodies of water in the city, with two lifeguarded bathing areas: Bagry Beach, on the Kozia Street side, and Bagry East Beach, on Bagrowa Street.
Did you know?
Around 2002 freshwater jellyfish of the species Craspedacusta sowerbii, originally from South America, appeared in the lake. For a Kraków reservoir this was a rare natural phenomenon.