The Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship is called a gem for lovers of urbex (urban exploration, Polish: urban exploration, a form of activity involving the exploration of usually invisible or inaccessible buildings and elements of urban infrastructure – editor’s note). They are attracted by abandoned castles and palaces, chapels hidden in forests or stone semi-circles of tombs. And among them, there is a depressing story in the background.
It was founded in pre-Teutonic times, and its name comes from the Prussian word “Malien”, which was used to describe the Omulew River. Due to the three lakes near which it was located, it developed exceptionally quickly. The forge operating there was a place of employment for the inhabitants, and the village itself was a significant center for obtaining and smelting bog ore.
Over time, similar activity was replaced by iron flowing into Poland from Sweden. So the inhabitants started working on the land. Some of them were engaged in fishing, others in bee keeping or tar making. In the 18th century, from an initially small village, Małga became a village.
Soon, a school was built there, and the residents also had an inn and even a church at their disposal. In 1818, the village had 61 houses and 163 inhabitants. In 1939, it was inhabited by 481 inhabitants, concentrated in 92 houses – informs the District Office in Szczytno. The village was doing better and better. Until then.
The date of January 20, 1945 is permanently etched in the history of the village. Then they reached Małga first. “The second wave of Soviet soldiers who reached the village started murdering, torturing and robbing the local population. Only those who took shelter on Mała Małga survived. 19 villagers died during World War II,” he explains in an interview with the District Office in Szczytno Witold Olbryś.
The following years, full of suffering for the inhabitants, did not bring any improvement. In 1954 the final end came. Everyone . Its area was transformed successively.
The army left the area only in 1993. The destroyed land was uninhabitable. Only a memory remains of the once bustling village.
Driving through the former areas of Małga today, it is hard to imagine that only a dozen or so years ago the largest village in the area existed in this place. The only reminders of it are the foundations of houses hidden in the forest thicket, the destroyed cemetery and the ruined… The latter, built in 1902, together with the church once occupied the central place of the village. Today it is a symbolic place. Lonely, surrounded by vegetation that gradually absorbs the remains of buildings, it reminds us of the depressing history of this place.
Today, the areas of the abandoned village are, established on the basis of the Order of the Minister of Environmental Protection, Natural Resources and Forestry in 1991. It is located approximately 30 km from Nidzica. It covers a swampy section of the Omulwia valley, and there are extensive reed bogs, peat bogs and willow and birch thickets. It is also a breeding place for cranes, swans, black grouses, lapwings and corncrakes. You can see otters and wolf tracks there. This is what remains of the once largest village in Masuria.