Some 16km south of Kościerzyna, Wdzydze Kiszewskie is a tiny village with a big attraction, namely the Kashubian Ethnographic Park, an open-air museum (skansen) displaying the typical rural architecture of Kashubia. Established in 1906 by the local schoolmaster, this was Poland’s first open-air museum of traditional architecture.
Many have followed in its wake. Pleasantly positioned on the lakeside, it now contains a score of buildings rescued from central and southern Kashubia, including cottages, barns, a school, a windmill and an 18th-century church used for Sunday Mass. Some of the interiors boast authentic furnishings, implements and decorations, showing how the Kashubians lived a century or two ago.
Reaching Wdzydze is tricky without your own wheels. A few buses a day link the village with Kościerzyna (8zł, 40 minutes), which has frequent services to/from Gdańsk (16.50zł, 1½ hours, hourly).