428 attractions in Lesser Poland, including Wawel Dragon Statue, Nowy Sącz Royal Castle and Remuh Cemetery in Kraków.
Hidden gemMonuments & mounds
Kraków
The dragon was originally meant to lie in the Vistula, partly submerged in the current. The idea was dropped when it became clear that rubbish carried by the river would pile up on the sculpture. So Bronisław Chromy's bronze Wawel Dragon w…
Hidden gemCastles
Nowy Sącz
Nowy Sącz Castle survived the Swedish invasion, fires and a flood, but it was finally destroyed in 1945. Soldiers of the Peasants' Battalions, a Polish resistance force, blew up a German ammunition dump stored inside its walls, and the exp…
Hidden gemLandmarks
Kraków
Behind the synagogue at 40 Szeroka Street lies one of the oldest surviving Jewish cemeteries in Europe. The Remuh Cemetery (also spelled Remah) has received the dead since 1551, and its oldest matzevah dates from 1552 — in Poland only Wroc…
Hidden gemNature
Kościelisko
Limestone rock gates, caves, meadows with shepherds' huts and a stream that has carved a gorge over thousands of years — the Kościeliska Valley is the second-largest valley in the Polish Tatras and the richest in karst features. A gentle t…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Kraków
Mogiła Abbey (say "mo-GHEE-wah") is a Cistercian monastery in Kraków's Nowa Huta district – and the oldest landmark of a neighborhood better known for Stalin-era architecture. Monks have lived here without interruption since 1222. Its basi…
Hidden gemLakes
Czorsztyn
On one shore stand the ruins of Czorsztyn Castle, on the other Dunajec Castle in Niedzica, and between them lies water that as recently as the 1990s was a valley of villages and fields. Lake Czorsztyn is a reservoir on the Dunajec River, s…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Kraków
Most visitors in St Mary's Square look up at the towers of St Mary's Basilica — and walk straight past the smaller church on the other side of the square. Yet St Barbara's holds a stone Pietà from the late 14th century, a carved Garden of…
Hidden gemMuseums
Kraków
The Museum of Kraków is not a single building but a network of sites across the city: from the Barbican and the Town Hall Tower, through the underground of the Market Square, to Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory and the shelters of Nowa Hut…
Hidden gemWaterfalls
Brzegi
Adam Mickiewicz never set foot in the Tatras, yet the best-known group of waterfalls on the road to Morskie Oko bears his name. Mickiewicz Falls are three larger and several smaller cascades on the Roztoka stream, 3 to 10 m high, whose roa…
Hidden gemAmusement parks
Zator
133 rides and shows, 20 roller coasters and a coaster that, when it opened, was the tallest and fastest hyper coaster in Europe. Energylandia in Zator, opened on 14 July 2014, is the largest amusement park in Poland and welcomed around 2 m…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Zakopane
Nosal (1,206 m) is the quickest way from Zakopane to a proper Tatra view: a green trail climbs from Kuźnice to the summit in about 35 minutes. This modest crag closes the north-eastern ridge of Kasprowy Wierch and takes its name from rocks…
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Kraków
Long before chartered Kraków and its Main Square existed, a trade route from Hungary and Bohemia to Mazovia and Greater Poland already ran this way. Grodzka Street leads from a corner of the Main Market Square to the foot of Wawel Hill and…
Hidden gemCastles
Babice
For more than two centuries the bishops of Kraków imprisoned clergy here: heretics, rebellious friars and priests accused of crimes. Lipowiec Castle stands on a wooded limestone hill (362 m above sea level) between Babice and Wygiełzów, an…
Hidden gemCastles
Rabsztyn
Three Kraków councillors sat in this castle's dungeon until their city paid compensation for the killing of its lord. Rabsztyn Castle, whose name comes from the German Rabenstein, "Raven Rock", stands on a limestone hill (427.5 m above sea…
Hidden gemCastles
Korzkiew
On a rocky spur wrapped by a wide bend of the Korzkiewka stream stands a castle rebuilt almost from scratch by one man. Its core is a 14th-century stone tower, and since 1997 the ruins have belonged to the architect Jerzy Donimirski, who i…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Wadowice
On the south wall of the basilica is a sundial with the motto "Czas ucieka, wieczność czeka" — "Time flies, eternity awaits". According to the parish, it can be seen from the windows of the Wojtyła family's former flat. The Basilica of the…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Zakopane
Beskid (2,012 m) is the easternmost peak on the main ridge of the Western Tatras and one of the easiest 2,000-metre summits to reach in Poland. A short ridge walk separates it from the top station of the Kasprowy Wierch cable car, and from…
Hidden gemNature
Witów
The Chochołowska Valley is the largest and longest valley in the Polish Tatras: about 10 km long and covering more than 35 km². In spring its meadows turn purple with crocuses, in summer sheep still graze here and you can taste fresh sheep…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Izby
Lackowa (997 m) is the highest peak in the Polish part of the Low Beskids and one of the summits of the Crown of Polish Mountains. From a distance it looks like a gentle wooded dome, yet from the west it is climbed by one of the steepest m…
Hidden gemMuseums
Kraków
In Kraków's Kazimierz district, at ul. św. Wawrzyńca 15, stands a group of halls that since the late 19th century has housed horse-drawn trams, narrow-gauge electric trams and buses in turn. The museum calls it unique in Europe — an almost…
Hidden gemCastles
Bydlin
For years the ruin on a wooded hill in Bydlin divided scholars: some considered it a castle, others a church from start to finish. The question was settled only by excavations in 1989, which uncovered the foundations of a gate tower and a…
Hidden gemCastles
Dębno
Dębno Castle near Brzesko is a rare case of a medieval magnate's residence that has survived almost unchanged. Built in 1470–1480 for the Crown Chancellor Jakub Dębiński (Jakub of Dębno), it still has its brick body with turrets, Gothic or…
Hidden gemCastles
Stary Wiśnicz
Wiśnicz Castle (say "VEESH-neech") is a Baroque hilltop residence of the powerful Lubomirski family, ringed by star-shaped bastion fortifications, near the town of Nowy Wiśnicz about 50 km southeast of Kraków. Run by the Museum of the Wiśn…
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…