Dejguny and Sterławki have one advantage over the better-known parts of Masuria: it is still peaceful here. This is not the area around Mikołajki or the centre of Giżycko with crowds of sailboats and bars every few dozen metres. For many Glamila Guests, this quiet becomes the greatest discovery of their stay in Masuria...

One of the best views within several kilometres of Glamila. The hill, about 180 m above sea level, offers a panorama of Lakes Dejguny and Tajty at the same time.

It is a detail easy to miss while walking along the shore. In 1868, during the construction of the East Prussian Railway, a railway embankment was built across the lake. As a result, the former single body of water split into two: Dejguny and the smaller Dejgunek.

The area around Glamila is good terrain for gravel and MTB bikes. A popular loop leads through Sterławki, Kronowo, Bogacko and Grzybowo, with plenty of gravel, forest roads and water views, practically without car traffic.

Dejguny is a vendace lake where practically every fish species found in Masuria occurs: pike, vendace, whitefish, eel and perch.

The area around Dejguny has one of the lower levels of light pollution in the region. In the evening, the Milky Way is clearly visible here, much better than in most Polish cities.

A small island covered with old trees in the middle of Dejguny was, according to legend, the seat of an Old Prussian priest of the Galindians, visited for prophecies. In the waters around the island, vessels and Roman coins almost two thousand years old were found.

Before anyone pitched the first tent here, before anyone called this place Glamila, there was something much older: an ice sheet that retreated, water that filled what it left behind, and people who came soon after.

Glamila lies in Sterławki Średnie, within several kilometres of places that archaeologists have studied for decades. This is not a region without history where glamping was simply built. It is a place where history lies literally beneath the surface: in the soil, in the water and sometimes on the lake bed.

The entire basin of the Great Masurian Lakes was once inhabited by the Galindians. The name is believed to refer to a land at the edge of the world or to people of the borderlands - a fitting description of this area even today. Beyond Galindia, the Prussian lands ended and the forest began. The Galindians cleared and burned small forest areas for fields, grew wheat, millet and barley, and kept pigs, goats and horses. But the lakes - the same waters beside which Glamila stands today - gave them what mattered most: fish in such abundance that they formed the basis of everyday food. They also kept bees, tanned hides and hunted wild animals.

The amber route, one of the most important trade corridors of ancient Europe, passed through the lands of the Galindians. Amber, grain, furs and hides travelled from here as far as the borders of the Roman Empire. Archaeologists still find traces of these contacts today: silver and gilded ornaments, brooches decorated with cross motifs, buckles with an eagle head - objects that arrived here from a completely different world. One such trace lay literally in the water for centuries. In 1971, fishermen from Grzybowo pulled a treasure of Roman coins from Lake Dejguny, dating back to the Antonine dynasty almost two thousand years ago. This is the very same water you can see today from the terrace of Caffe Glamila.

The most intriguing local story concerns a small island in the middle of Lake Dejguny, covered with old trees. According to local legend, it was the seat of an Old Prussian Galindian priest - a place people sailed to for prophecies and advice in important matters. What makes this story different from an ordinary legend is that it has archaeological support. Vessels and Roman coins from the times of the Antonine and Nero emperors were found on the lake bed near the island, exactly where the legend places the cult site. No one can say today where the story ends and fact begins. Perhaps that is for the best - some places should keep a little mystery.

A few kilometres from Glamila, in Wrony, there was once a defensive stronghold connected with Prussian and early medieval settlement. In Sterławki Wielkie and Sterławki Małe, archaeologists found burial mounds and traces of settlement from the Bronze Age - proof that people lived here more than 3,000 years ago. A little farther away, in Bogaczewo, lies the site that gave its name to an entire archaeological culture: the Bogaczewo culture, which developed during the first five centuries AD. It is one of the most important archaeological cultures of north-eastern Poland, and the ornaments, weapons and objects imported from the Roman Empire found here show how actively this land participated in long-distance trade two thousand years ago.

The history of this place does not end in antiquity. On the Lisi Ogon peninsula near Dejguny, bunkers have survived which, according to historians, may have served as a communications centre supporting the nearby Wolf’s Lair in 1941-1944. At that time, the whole area was a military zone, and local stories even mention equipment sunk in the lake during the retreat of the troops.

The same landscape that attracted people thousands of years ago now welcomes guests for morning coffee on the terrace, an afternoon on a SUP board and an evening by the fire. Little has changed: instead of the amber route there is a regional road, instead of a stronghold - a tent with a lake view. The silence you hear here has a truly long history..