Lake Międzybrodzie

Lake Międzybrodzie fills the gorge of the River Soła through the Little Beskids and looks rather like a mountain fjord: narrow, about 5 km long and squeezed between wooded slopes. It was created in 1937 behind the Porąbka Dam, co-designed by Gabriel Narutowicz, who later became Poland's first president. Today it is a place for kayaking, pedal boats and a trip up Mount Żar.

History: Narutowicz's dam

The Porąbka Dam was the largest hydraulic engineering project of interwar Poland. It was designed by Prof. Gabriel Narutowicz and engineer Tadeusz Baecker and built by a Polish-French company. The concrete dam is about 37 m high and 260 m long. It was officially opened in 1936, and its 90th anniversary was celebrated in 2026. The reservoir was built mainly to protect the Soła valley from floods; today it also generates electricity and is used for leisure.

The lake covers 3.8 km² and holds 26.6 million m³ of water. It is the middle link of the Soła Cascade, with Lake Żywiec upstream and Lake Czaniec downstream.

What to see and do

The holiday villages of Międzybrodzie Bialskie and Międzybrodzie Żywieckie sit on the shore, and the road from Kęty to Żywiec runs along the western bank. On the water you can:

• rent kayaks, canoes and SUP boards from the marina in Międzybrodzie Bialskie,
• take out pedal boats in Międzybrodzie Żywieckie,
• go fishing: the lake holds pike, zander, trout, perch and catfish, among others.

Above the lake rises Mount Żar (761 m), served by a funicular. On its summit lies the artificial upper reservoir of the Porąbka-Żar pumped-storage power station from 1979, with Lake Międzybrodzie acting as its lower reservoir. Żar also has a mountain gliding school, so gliders often circle above the lake.

Did you know?

The Porąbka-Żar power station is the only one in Poland built entirely inside a mountain. When demand is low it pumps water from the lake up to the top of Żar, then releases it back through turbines at times of peak demand. Before the war Gabriel Narutowicz was a respected hydraulic engineer in Switzerland, and in 1922 he was elected Poland's first president.

Tripto tip

For a short trip, see the Porąbka Dam, ride up Żar and visit a marina in Międzybrodzie. For a longer hike, climb Czupel (933 m), the highest peak of the Little Beskids, Magurka Wilkowicka or Hrobacza Łąka. The shore is not one long beach: access to the water, parking and bathing spots vary from place to place, and rental opening hours and prices are worth checking in advance.