Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Selected city: ojcow
Hidden gemCastles
Ojców
King Casimir the Great is said to have named his new stronghold "Ociec" (an old form of "father") in memory of his father, Władysław the Elbow-high, who according to tradition hid in the nearby caves while fighting for the Kraków throne. T…
Landmarks
Ojców
The Kraków Gate (Brama Krakowska) in Ojców (say "OY-tsoof") is a pair of towering limestone pillars that guard the mouth of a side gorge in the Prądnik Valley, the heart of Ojców National Park. Just 25 km north of Kraków, it is one of the…
Hidden gemCaves
Ojców
In 2018 archaeologists found finger bones of a Neanderthal child in Ciemna Cave ("Dark Cave") dating back about 115,000 years – the oldest known human remains in Poland. The cave on Koronna Hill in Ojców National Park has the largest chamb…
National parks
Ojców
Ojców National Park is Poland's smallest national park – just 21.46 km² – and one of its most varied. It lies about 16 km north of Kraków and protects the Jurassic Prądnik Valley with its limestone crags, caves, beech woods and two castles…
Churches & monasteries
Ojców
The wooden Chapel on the Water ("Na Wodzie"), dedicated to St Joseph the Worker, straddles the Prądnik stream on concrete supports set into both banks, beneath white limestone crags known as the Prałatki. It is one of the most photographed…
Nature
Ojców
The Sąspowska Valley (say "sonce-POV-skah") is the second-largest valley in Ojców National Park (say "OY-tsoof"), Poland's smallest national park, about 25 km (15 miles) north of Kraków. Almost undeveloped, with meadows on the valley floor…
National parks
Ojców
The trail across Okopy Hill runs right along the edge of limestone cliffs secured with rope railings, and one of the crags opens a view over the Prądnik Valley. The wooded summit hides the ramparts of a stronghold that medieval sources lin…
Nature
Ojców
A lone, slender limestone spire rises from a meadow at the mouth of the Wrześnik ravine, and in autumn it looks like a burning torch – it is wrapped in Virginia creeper whose leaves turn an intense red. Along with Hercules' Club and the Kr…
Caves
Ojców
King Łokietek's Cave (Jaskinia Łokietka, roughly "yahs-KEEN-yah wo-KYET-kah") is the largest known cave in Ojców National Park, a small and beautiful protected area of limestone valleys about 25 km north of Kraków. A guided walk leads thro…
Museums
Ojców
The Nature Exhibition of Ojców National Park occupies the former Hotel pod Łokietkiem, built in 1860 when Ojców was a fashionable spa. The visit begins with 3D films and ends in front of a huge diorama in which dusk falls and night arrives…
Nature
Ojców
On a summer midday the surface of a white rock on the south-facing side of the Prądnik Valley can heat up to 60°C, while a few dozen metres away, in the shady forest on the north-facing slope, the thermometer reads 22°C. That contrast is t…
Other
Ojców
In the heart of Ojców National Park, by the Jonaszówka viewpoint, ponds holding brown trout have been in use since 1935. A few years ago they were due to be filled in – today they form a trout farm and grill garden serving trout smoked ove…
Nature
Ojców
The heart at the bottom of the basin is not a work of nature – it was carved into the stone, and the romantic name was given to the spring by local guides. The Spring of Love (Źródło Miłości) in the Prądnik Valley is a karst spring that de…