Things to do in the Opole region
131 attractions in the Opole region, including Moszna Castle, Brzeg Castle and Lake Otmuchów. Map, details and practical tips before you go.
All attractions (131)
Castles
Moszna Castle
Moszna
Moszna Castle (pronounced roughly "MOSH-nah") is a fairy-tale palace in southern Poland's Opole region and one of the most photographed residences in the country. Built up over two centuries by the wealthy Tiele-Winckler family, it bristle…
90–150 min
Castles
Brzeg Castle
Brzeg
Brzeg Castle (say "BZHEG"), nicknamed "the Silesian Wawel", is one of the finest Renaissance residences in Central Europe, set on the Oder River about 45 km southeast of Wrocław. It is famous for its richly carved gatehouse lined with stat…
Hidden gemLakes
Lake Otmuchów
Ścibórz
A broad expanse of water on the Nysa Kłodzka River, with the Sudetes on the horizon — Lake Otmuchów is an artificial reservoir built in 1928–1933 between Otmuchów and Paczków. It combines flood protection and power generation with fishing,…
90–300 min Free entry
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Biskupia Kopa in the Opawskie Mountains
Prudnik
Biskupia Kopa (say "bees-KOO-pya KOH-pa"; 890 m) is the highest peak of the Opawskie Mountains, a small range of the eastern Sudetes on the Poland–Czech border, and one of the peaks of the Crown of Polish Mountains. Beech forests, a mounta…
180–300 min Free entry
Hidden gemZoos
Opole Zoo
Opole
Opole Zoo has opened three times: before the war, after the war, when the menagerie had to be rebuilt from scratch, and after the great flood of 1997, which nearly sealed its fate. Today more than 1,000 animals of over 200 species live on…
Hidden gemCastles
Otmuchów Castle
Otmuchów
Bishop Philipp von Sinzendorf suffered from gout, so he had a staircase rebuilt to let his servants carry him upstairs in a sedan chair — this is how the famous "horse stairs" of Otmuchów Castle came about. It is just one detail of a fortr…
Hidden gemCastles
Strzelce Opolskie Castle
Strzelce Opolskie
Empty windows, ivy on the walls and a pale tower above the park — this is how the former seat of the dukes of Strzelce, and later of the Colonna and Renard counts, has looked since 21 January 1945. Strzelce Opolskie Castle burned down toge…
Free entry
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
St Michael the Archangel Church in Prudnik
Prudnik
In 1735 Prudnik's new church was almost finished — the Blessed Sacrament was already kept there — when a fire in the town destroyed it along with the freshly painted frescoes by Felix Anton Scheffler. The builder Johann Innozenz Töpper reb…
Hidden gemCastles
Castle in Głogówek
Głogówek
Głogówek Castle (say "gwo-GOO-vek") is the former seat of the Oppersdorff counts in a small town in Poland's Opole Province, and the place where Ludwig van Beethoven stayed in 1806. He dedicated his Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60 t…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
St Nicholas' Church in Brzeg
Brzeg
The nave here rises 30 metres, one of the tallest in Silesia, and St Nicholas' is counted among the largest Gothic churches in the region. It was the burghers' parish church of Brzeg, served Lutherans for four centuries, burned out in 1945…
30–60 min Free entry
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Ozimek Suspension Bridge
Ozimek
The Ozimek Suspension Bridge (Ozimek is pronounced roughly "oh-ZEE-mek") is the oldest surviving all-iron chain suspension bridge in continental Europe. Opened on September 12, 1827 over the Mała Panew River in southern Poland's Opole regi…
Free entry
Hidden gemMuseums
Muzeum Wsi Opolskiej w Opolu
Opole
The Museum of the Opole Countryside (Muzeum Wsi Opolskiej) is an open-air museum in Opole's Bierkowice district, about 5 km from the city center. Around 50 wooden buildings brought from villages across the region – farmhouses, granaries, a…
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Głogówek Town Hall
Głogówek
From the tower of this town hall a watchman once announced the hours and important news with a trumpet, and in 1625 soldiers passing through the town shot the ball on its tip through in three places. The Renaissance town hall in Głogówek,…
Free entry
Hidden gemLandscape parks
Stobrawa Landscape Park
gmina Lubsza
Almost 80 per cent of the park is forest, mostly pine growing on sandy dunes, while the Oder valley holds riverside woods, oak-hornbeam forest and oxbow lakes covered with water chestnut. Stobrawa Landscape Park is one of the largest lands…
Free entry
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Brzeg
Brzeg
Much of the high altar in this church is painted – the columns, cornices and scenes in the chancel are an illusion created by a Jesuit's brush. The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Brzeg is a former Jesuit church whose vault a…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
St Michael's Church in Grodków
Grodków
Above the early-Gothic chancel of Grodków's parish church lies a puzzle: when it was raised to the height of the nave in the late Middle Ages, the builders did not take down the old vault but simply built an unfinished upper storey above i…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
St John the Evangelist Church in Paczków
Paczków
St. John the Evangelist's Church in Paczków (say “PATCH-koof”) is a Gothic church that was turned into a fortress in the 16th century, and it still looks the part: a brick hall crowned by a white Renaissance parapet with swallowtail merlon…
30–60 min Free entry
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Brzeg Town Hall
Brzeg
Brzeg Town Hall (say "BZHEG") is one of the finest Renaissance town halls in Poland and, together with the Piast castle a few streets away, the reason to stop in this small Silesian town on the Oder. Built in 1569-1577 by the Italian maste…
Free entry
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Sanctuary of St Joseph, Prudnik-Las
Prudnik
In this forest monastery near Prudnik, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński spent a year as a prisoner of Poland's communist authorities — and it was here, reading Sienkiewicz's historical novel "The Deluge", that he came up with the idea of renewing…
Hidden gemCastles
Upper Castle in Opole
Opole
Opole once had two castles, and of the second, "upper" one, a single Gothic tower survives, now embedded in school buildings. It was built at the end of the 14th century by Duke Władysław II of Opole – a prince who served as Palatine of Hu…
Hidden gemCastles
Niemodlin Castle
Niemodlin
"Stained-glass windows" made of coloured foil still hang in the cloisters, and in the courtyard you can see monks' cell frames painted on plywood – souvenirs of the film "Jasminum", which Jan Jakub Kolski shot in the then-ruined castle. Ni…
Museums
Museum of Polish Song in Opole
Opole
The Museum of Polish Song in Opole tells the story of Polish popular music from the 1920s to the present – inside the Millennium Amphitheatre, the stage of the National Festival of Polish Song. Instead of display cases you get headphones,…
Museums
Nysa District Museum
Nysa
The Nysa District Museum is the oldest museum in Opole Silesia – it has existed since 1897 and since 1984 has occupied the Baroque Bishops' Palace, the former residence of the bishops of Wrocław, who were also dukes of Nysa. Here you will…
Palaces
Kopice Palace
Kopice
Kopice Palace (say "ko-PEE-tseh") is a romantic Gothic Revival ruin reflected in a pond in a wooded landscape park in Poland's Opole region. Its turrets, gables and lacy stone tracery have earned it nicknames like "Poland's Disneyland," an…