MrÄ…gowo

Reaching Mragowo.

MrÄ…gowo was our first stop in the morning.  This town is known for its annual country music festival.  The area was first the site of a fortress of the Teutonic Knights in the 1300s.  It became a town in the 1400s.  Unfortunately, it was nearly all destroyed in the Second World War. 

I drove around a little looking at the buildings and some nice tree-lined streets before heading towards Swieta Lipka.

One of my travel buddy friends, Kasia tells me that the bear on KÄ™trzyn’s coat of arms is supposed to only have three legs, so I looked this up (The names of these towns are mentioned with their German names from when this part of Poland was East Prussia): The town's coat of arms comes from a local story from the 15th century. It claims that when a group of local farmers was being threatened by predators, the townspeople tracked down a fearsome bear. They were only able to shoot it in its paw, and it managed to flee to Rastenburg (KÄ™trzyn in German). Only upon its arrival there did the bear succumb to its injuries. The bear's paw was brought back to Sensburg (MrÄ…gowo in German) and is honored in the coat of arms. 

I'll attach a picture of the coat of arms...