The late-18th-century pine-log cottage on ul. Turystyczna is 23m long on stone footings, standing on the riverbank whose work it records. Below it, two wooden-cabin barges rest on riveted steel pontoons built in 1912 and 1920. You get in by advance booking only, and the booking takes a minimum of 10 tickets.
The skansen on ul. Turystyczna
Park Etnograficzny w Kaszczorku (ul. Turystyczna), the open-air branch of the Toruń Ethnographic Museum, records a fishing and rafting village from the ground where that work was done. The site has two levels. The upper terrace holds the fisherman-farmer cottage, 23m by 7.5m, with its barn and its cowshed.
The slope then drops toward the Drwęca. Down there are the two living barges, one built at Fordon in 1912 and one at Toruń-Winnica in 1920, the retired ferry Jan, a 13m sand-dredging boat under a drying shelter and the reed-season fishermen's huts. Allow time on the lower level. The boats are the part of the collection that explains the river.
The season runs from mid-May to September, Tuesday to Sunday, in daytime hours. Tickets are 15 zł normal and 10 zł reduced. A family ticket is 30 zł, and a Polish-language guide adds 50 zł.
Book before you travel on 56 622 80 91, extension 27, or at [email protected]. The booking takes a minimum of 10 tickets, and out of season a solo walk-up will find the gate shut. Fix this stop first and build the rest of the day around the slot you are given.
Ul. Wieżowa, the church and the stable
Kościół Podwyższenia Krzyża Świętego (ul. Wieżowa 10) was first recorded in 1321 and built by the Beghards, before Toruń's Dominicans took it over. The hall church is squat brick and fieldstone with a three-sided apse, set in trees under a steep sandy escarpment. A stumpy white half-timbered wooden belfry was bolted onto the west end in 1698. Inside, the ceiling is flat.
A fire in 1966 gutted the Baroque fittings. What is left for a visitor is the exterior and the 14th-century figure of St Wojciech. Entry is free, and the door is often locked outside mass times. Weekday mass is at 18:00. Sunday masses are at 8:15, 10:15 and 11:30.
Stajnia Kaszczorek (ul. Wieżowa 1/5) is the yard of the Toruński Klub Jazdy Konnej, a set of low stable blocks and sand arenas laid out with white show-jumping poles. The paddocks run back toward the wooded escarpment and the horses are turned out within sight of the church tower, so the two sights on ul. Wieżowa are one slow walk apart. Lessons go by prior arrangement.
A group lesson takes up to five riders, at 100 zł a person. An individual lesson is 150 zł. The yard also runs riding camps, holds open show-jumping competitions and hosts the May festival for the district. You can watch the jumping weekends for free, and without arranging anything first.
The Drwęca mouth and the confluence
Wieża widokowa przy ujściu Drwęcy is on the grassy bank beside the summer kayak dock, just over 6m of untreated timber with two decks and 20 steps. Toruń built it in 2020 from the participatory budget at a cost of 65,000 zł, shorter than the version first drawn up. Climb it early in the walk. The decks give you the meandering river, the water meadows and the Rubinkowo tower blocks on the skyline in a single frame, and the tower is free, unstaffed and open at any hour.
From the foot of the steps the paths run on into Ujście Drwęcy do Wisły and the Rezerwat przyrody "Rzeka Drwęca". The banks are sandy and lined with willow, and the clear Drwęca slides from them into the wide grey Vistula. Dirt paths follow the water meadows past beaver-gnawed stumps, and kingfishers work the same stretch.
The reserve has been protected since 1961 and is Poland's longest ichthyological reserve. Fishing is not permitted, and neither is boating off the marked water. The banks and footpaths themselves are public, and that protection is why the district still feels rural at the edge of a city.
Across the fork, the brick stub walls of the Złotoria castle ruins sit on the opposite point, about 1 km away. Kazimierz the Great had the castle built in 1363. Reach it by road via Lubicz.
Stary most Kaszczorek – Złotoria opened on 16 December 1893 as a toll crossing and carries number 2157 on Toruń's municipal heritage register. Its 54m timber deck sits on latticed steel spans and concrete river piers, low over the brown Drwęca between wooded banks, the superstructure dark with creosote and the whole crossing built at village scale.
The deck has been shut to pedestrians and cyclists since February 2024. Stage-one repairs ran to 30 November 2026 and stage two is scheduled for 2027, inside a 4.5m zł restoration. Photograph it from the bank approaches, which are public and free at any hour, then plan the Złotoria leg by road.
Arriving by kayak
Aqua Natura Park, the Kajaki Toruń operation at Lubicz, runs the paddle that ends in the district instead of dropping you in the city. The Lubicz to Kaszczorek run is 8 to 12 km of flat beginner water and takes 2 to 2.5 hours. Kayaks are 80 zł to 120 zł a day.
The yellow and red plastic boats come off a trailer at the Lubicz slipway, and the river meanders narrow between willow banks and high sandy bluffs before you land on the grass beside the skansen. Family and birthday trips run with a minibus shuttle to the put-in, and parties muster in front of the skansen. Book ahead.
Przystanie kajakowe KajMaK is the river bank's pair of wooden landing stages, with timber shelters, a plank table and a stone-ringed campfire pit on mown grass under the willows. Kayaks get pulled up onto the sand beside them. Toruń's critical-mass paddlers built the sites in 2014.
The landings are free and first-come. Nobody staffs them, nothing can be booked, and nothing is sold on site, so carry in whatever you want to eat, drink or burn. In summer this is where riverside Kaszczorek gathers after a paddle.
Lunch in Kaszczorek
Pierogarnia na Kaszczorku "Smacznego" (ul. Dożynkowa 9b/9c) pinches its pierogi and pielmieni by hand and sends them out under sour cream and crisped onion. The room is a small ground-floor unit in a modern low-rise parade on a quiet housing street, bright and plain, with one banquet-length table down the middle. It opens daily from 11:00 to 19:00.
Phone +48 789 779 658 to pre-order for a party. The room doubles as a function space and the kitchen caters. This is the only sit-down kitchen in the district, and the address has turned over several times; Receptura food & coffee here is permanently closed. Call before you walk out from the skansen.
Obiadowa (ul. Na Przełaj 1) is the lunch counter beside the Stokrotka supermarket, and the cheapest plate in Kaszczorek. Tomato soup, breaded cutlets, buckwheat and beetroot sit in steam trays behind glass, with jugs of homemade kompot on the laminated tables. You order at the counter and the queue moves fast.
Hours are 12:00 to 17:00, Monday to Friday, and the place closes at weekends. The room is too small for a coach party. Weekend visitors need to plan lunch somewhere else.
Złotoria for the evening
Pizzeria Pokusa (ul. Toruńska 35, Złotoria) is on the village high street about 2 km from the Kaszczorek church, on the far side of the Drwęca by road via Lubicz while the old bridge is out. Pizzas are 26,50 zł to 37 zł, eaten in a simple wood-and-tile room or boxed up for the mopeds. A kebab grill works behind the counter.
It is closed on Mondays. Tuesday to Thursday it opens 13:00 to 21:00, and Friday and Saturday 13:00 to 22:00. On Sunday it runs 12:30 to 21:00. Delivery reaches Kaszczorek, and larger orders go through 508 357 289.
Herba-Cafe (ul. Lipowa 22A, Złotoria) roasts coffee in a suburban house 3 km from the district, with a drum roaster, sacks of green arabica and shelves of loose-leaf tea tins. A cupping table stands where a café would keep seating. Hours are not published and payment is cash only.
Call +48 604 220 806 before you set out, and go for beans rather than for an hour at a table. It is the one specialty roastery within reach of Kaszczorek.
Staying on the right bank
Pensjonat Winnica (ul. Winnica 8) keeps you on the same bank and the same riverside cycle route as Kaszczorek, 4 km downstream and directly on the Vistula. The guesthouse sits on terraced slopes planted to recreate Toruń's historic vineyards, and the river-view rooms look straight across open water. The Old Town is a 15-minute walk the other way.
Rooms are 200 zł to 450 zł a night with breakfast. Parking in the large gated yard is 30 zł a car. The dining room seats 30 off the house kitchen, and the pensjonat takes parties and receptions.
Planning the day
Book the skansen and the kayaks by phone before you travel, and check the mass times if you want the church door open. Obiadowa closes at weekends, Pizzeria Pokusa closes on Mondays, Herba-Cafe takes cash only, and the old bridge stays shut to anyone on foot.
See the Torun guide and the Torun hotel search.
Questions
Can you visit the Kaszczorek skansen without booking?
No. Park Etnograficzny w Kaszczorku takes advance bookings only, minimum 10 tickets, on 56 622 80 91 extension 27 or at [email protected]. It opens mid-May to September, Tuesday to Sunday, in daytime hours. Tickets cost 15 zł normal, 10 zł reduced and 30 zł family, and a Polish-language guide is another 50 zł.
Can you walk across the old wooden bridge to Złotoria?
No. The 1893 bridge has been closed to pedestrians and cyclists since February 2024. Stage-one repairs run to 30 November 2026, and stage two is scheduled for 2027. You can reach the bank approaches at any hour to photograph it, and the Złotoria side by road via Lubicz.
Where can you eat in Kaszczorek?
Pierogarnia na Kaszczorku "Smacznego" on ul. Dożynkowa 9b/9c opens daily from 11:00 to 19:00 and takes pre-orders on +48 789 779 658. Obiadowa on ul. Na Przełaj 1 serves 12:00 to 17:00, Monday to Friday, and shuts at the weekend. In the evening there is Pizzeria Pokusa in Złotoria, closed Mondays, which delivers into Kaszczorek.
How do you get to Kaszczorek by kayak?
Aqua Natura Park runs the Lubicz to Kaszczorek trip: 8 to 12 km of flat beginner water, 2 to 2.5 hours, ending on the grass beside the skansen. Kayaks cost 80 zł to 120 zł a day and you book ahead. Groups meet in front of the skansen and a minibus shuttles them to the put-in.
Is the Gothic church in Kaszczorek open to visitors?
Entry is free, but Kościół Podwyższenia Krzyża Świętego on ul. Wieżowa 10 is often locked outside mass times. Weekday mass is at 18:00, and Sunday masses are at 8:15, 10:15 and 11:30. A 1966 fire destroyed the Baroque fittings. What survives is the exterior and the 14th-century figure of St Wojciech.
First published on toruntravel.com, the Torun guide.
