Repecki Park in Tarnowskie Góry

Repty Park (Park w Reptach, roughly "REP-tih") in Tarnowskie Góry is a 19th-century landscape park of about 200 hectares (500 acres), laid out by the aristocratic Henckel von Donnersmarck family on the site of a former deer park. Old beech woods, meadows along the Drama River and traces of a vanished palace make it one of the loveliest walks in Upper Silesia, about 30 km north of Katowice. It is also where you board the boats of the Black Trout Adit, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From hunting ground to English-style park

In 1824 Count Karl Lazarus Henckel von Donnersmarck, one of Silesia's wealthiest industrial magnates, bought the Repty estate. In the 1840s he built a small hunting lodge and walled the forest in as a deer park; fragments of the limestone wall still stand. His son Guido went much further: between 1893 and 1898 he built a grand Neo-Renaissance palace designed by the Munich architect Gabriel von Seidl and turned the game preserve into an English-style landscape park. Hills were reshaped and about 10,000 trees planted, including North American species such as eastern hemlock, Douglas fir and tulip tree.

The palace burned at the end of World War II and its ruins were cleared in the 1960s. A large rehabilitation center now stands on the neighboring meadow. The park has been a listed monument since 1966.

What to see

• The Drama Valley: the river splits the park in two, with mown meadows and damp riverside woods.
• Veteran trees: the biggest beeches and oaks grow around the former palace grounds.
• Estate remains: stretches of the old deer-park wall and the former stables, now used by schools run by the Salesian order.
• Wildlife: protected plants, rare bats and many breeding birds have been recorded here.

The Black Trout Adit (UNESCO)

The park's star attraction is a 600-meter section of the Deep Friedrich Adit, a drainage tunnel dug between 1821 and 1834 for the royal Friedrich lead and silver mine, founded in 1784. Visitors descend a shaft and glide through the dark tunnel in boats, 20–30 m below ground, while a guide pushes off the rock walls. Tours have run since 1957; the operator also offers guiding in English and German. The adit has been a National Monument of Poland since 2004 and, together with the Historic Silver Mine, joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017. Check the operator for current times and prices in PLN; it is closed on November 1 and over Christmas.

Visiting tips (as of October 2026)

The park itself is a public green space with no admission charge. Allow 1.5–2 hours for a relaxed walk, or half a day if you add the boat trip. Main paths suit bikes and strollers; side paths in the valley can be muddy. Spring and fall (autumn foliage) are the most photogenic seasons.

How to get there

Tarnowskie Góry is about 30–40 minutes by car from Katowice and close to Katowice Airport. Parking is available on the eastern edge of the park on Repecka Street, where the old hunting lodge once stood, and the adit has a visitor center by the Sylwester shaft. Is it worth visiting? Combined with the Silver Mine, it makes an excellent day trip into Silesia's mining heritage.