Dubeninki

A rural municipality in Gołdap County, on the border with the Kaliningrad Oblast. It covers 205.30 km² and has about 2,500 residents in 21 village councils. Its seat is the village of Dubeninki. The railway bridges in Stańczyki and part of the Romincka Forest Landscape Park lie within the municipality.

Overview

• Area: 205.30 km²
• Population: 2,495 (Statistics Poland, 31 December 2025)
• Village councils (sołectwa): 21
• Borders the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federation
• The watershed between the Vistula and Pregolya basins runs through the municipality; 97.2% of its area drains to the Pregolya
• Lake Czarne covers 162.5 ha
• Six nature reserves: Czarcia Kępa, Czerwona Struga, Dziki Kąt, Boczki, Struga Żytkiejmska and Uroczysko Kramnik

The Stańczyki bridges

Two parallel five-span railway bridges up to about 36 m high stand over the Błędzianka valley in Stańczyki. They were built between 1912 and 1918. The southern bridge was completed in 1917 and the northern one in 1918. They carried the Gołdap–Żytkiejmy line, on which trains ran from 1 October 1927. The tracks were dismantled in 1945. The bridges have been on the register of historic monuments since 1979.

The Romincka Forest

The Romincka Forest Landscape Park was established on 14 January 1998. It covers 14,865.11 ha and its buffer zone 7,695.69 ha. It lies on land of the municipalities of Dubeninki and Gołdap. Its northern boundary is the state border with the Kaliningrad Oblast. The park’s head office is in Żytkiejmy, at ul. Szkolna 1.

History

Settlement of this area began after 1525. The settlers were Poles from Mazovia and Lithuanians from Samogitia, as the Polish and Lithuanian place names show. Żytkiejmy was founded in 1554 by settlers from Lithuania. The village of Dubeninki was founded in 1615 by Krzysztof Gordecki; it was originally called Gordejki. The war cemetery in Dubeninki holds 42 German and 113 Russian soldiers who fell in November 1914.

Authorities

Head of the Municipality (Wójt): Łukasz Balczun (term 2024–2029)

Cooperation within the WMSP

This local government takes part in the shared territorial strategy of the borderland through 2030 and in the CuRI 2026–2027 programme (Eastern Border Regions Catching-up Regions Initiative, European Commission + World Bank).