Niedzica Castle rises behind a hydroelectric dam, still under construction in this photograph, on Poland’s Dunajec River. The castle, originally built in the 14th century, once overlooked the Dunajec Breach, a five-mile-long (eight-kilometer-long) gorge flanked by towering rock walls. Now, it oversees tranquil Czorsztyn Lake, formed when the controversial dam was completed in 1994.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Poland: The Hope That Never Dies," January, 1988, National Geographic magazine)