Things to do in Silesia
491 attractions in Silesia, including Jasna Góra Monastery, Spodek Arena in Katowice and Silesian Stadium in Chorzów.
All attractions (491)
Churches & monasteries
Jasna Góra Monastery
Częstochowa
Jasna Góra Monastery (say "YAS-na GOO-ra") in Częstochowa is Poland's most important Catholic pilgrimage site and the home of the Black Madonna, the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa. Run by the Pauline Fathers since 1382, it is also a forme…
60–150 min Free entry
Technical monuments
Spodek Arena in Katowice
Katowice
When a model of the planned Katowice arena appeared on the covers of European architecture magazines in 1960, the organising committee of the Rome Olympics asked to borrow it for an art exhibition. Eleven years later the "flying saucer" la…
60–90 min
Technical monuments
Silesian Stadium in Chorzów
Chorzów
The attendance record at the Silesian Stadium was not set by football but by speedway: on 2 September 1973 some 130,000 people turned up for the Individual Speedway World Championship. Today's arena in Chorzów's Silesian Park is smaller an…
60–150 min
Castles
Będzin Castle
Będzin
In August 1588 a small castle above the Czarna Przemsza river received Chancellor Jan Zamoyski with 400 hussars, envoys of Emperor Rudolf II and the papal legate Ippolito Aldobrandini — the future Pope Clement VIII. They had come to negoti…
60–120 min
Mountains & peaks
Historic Silver Mine Tarnowskie Góry
Tarnowskie Góry
The Historic Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry (say "tar-NOV-skyeh GOO-rih") is the only underground tourist route in Poland set inside former silver, lead and zinc mines. You descend about 40 m (130 ft) below ground, walk nearly 2 km of old…
Mountains & peaks
Czantoria Wielka (Velká Čantoryje)
Wisła
On the summit of Czantoria Wielka (995 m) you can stand with one foot in Poland and the other in the Czech Republic — and at the same time on Poland's main watershed, which divides the basins of the Vistula and the Oder. It is one of the m…
Technical monuments
Gliwice Radio Station
Gliwice
The Gliwice Radio Station (pronounced "glee-VEE-tseh") is where World War II was staged before it began. On the evening of August 31, 1939, German SS men disguised as Polish insurgents seized the station and broadcast a fake "Polish attack…
Hiking & tourist trails
Trail of the Eagles' Nests
Podzamcze
The red-marked Trail of the Eagles' Nests links Kraków with Częstochowa over 163.9 km, winding between the limestone outcrops of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, also known as the Polish Jura. Along the way it passes medieval castles and wat…
Castles
Bobolice Castle
gmina Niegowa
As recently as the 1990s, all that remained of Bobolice Castle was a ruin on a limestone crag. Today King Casimir the Great's fortress once again has a roof, a tower and battlements, the result of a ten-year private reconstruction that ope…
Lakes
Lake Żywiec
Żywiec
Beneath the surface of Lake Żywiec lie the remains of Zarzecze, Tresna, Zadziele and Stary Żywiec — villages that disappeared when the Soła river was dammed in the 1960s. The reservoir covers about 10 km², is 6.6 km long and up to 26.8 m d…
Free entry
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Żywiec Brewery and Brewery Museum
Żywiec
Poland's best-known beer label — a couple dancing the Krakowiak folk dance — was created in 1956 with Americans in mind. A Polish emigrant who wanted to sell Żywiec beer in the USA insisted on the traditional Kraków costumes, because they…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Adam Małysz Ski Jump in Wisła-Malinka
Wisła
The first jump on the new hill in Wisła-Malinka was made on 17 September 2008 by Adam Małysz himself — a few metres past the K-point, although it was not officially measured. Less than two weeks later, at the Polish Championships that open…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Skrzyczne
Szczyrk
Skrzyczne (1,257 m) is the highest peak of the Silesian Beskids and one of the summits of the Crown of Polish Mountains, a list of the highest points of Poland's mountain ranges. Above the Żywiec Basin it rises as a single, almost 800-metr…
Hidden gemCastles
Mirów Castle
gmina Niegowa
On a limestone ridge above the village of Mirów, the castle walls grow straight out of the rocks. The ruins look as if someone had joined natural rock towers with masonry – and that is exactly how this stronghold was built. Mirów Castle da…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Guido Coal Mine in Zabrze
Zabrze
Guido Coal Mine in Zabrze (say "ZAH-bzheh") is a historic coal mine in Poland's Silesia region where you ride a real miners' cage 320 meters (about 1,050 feet) underground. The museum calls it the lowest-lying tourist route in Europe. Down…
150–240 min
Hidden gemMuseums
Silesian Museum in Katowice
Katowice
Above ground you see only glass cuboids, the brick buildings of a former mine and a headframe. The actual Silesian Museum is hidden underground: its galleries occupy underground levels beneath the site of the closed "Katowice" coal mine. I…
120–240 min
Hidden gemMuseums
Silesian Planetarium in Chorzów
Chorzów
On the highest hill of the Silesian Park, Poland's largest and oldest planetarium has stood since 1955. The Silesian Planetarium has a dome 23 m across, onto which a new projector casts some 100 million stars, and after a PLN 136 million r…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Archcathedral of Christ the King in Katowice
Katowice
The Cathedral of Christ the King in Katowice (Katowice: kah-toh-VEE-tseh) is the mother church of Upper Silesia, Poland's historic industrial heartland, and one of the most monumental churches built anywhere in the country in the 20th cent…
Free entry
Hidden gemAmusement parks
Legendia – Silesian Amusement Park
Chorzów
In 1970 the Silesian Amusement Park welcomed 2 million visitors — a record that says a lot about what this funfair meant to Upper Silesia. Opened in 1959 in Silesian Park in Chorzów, it is the oldest amusement park in Poland. Since 2017 it…
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Market Square in Katowice
Katowice
Katowice Market Square (Rynek, pronounced roughly "RIH-nek") is the main square of Katowice, the largest city of Poland's Upper Silesia region, and the natural place to start exploring downtown. Trams cross it, the main streets meet here,…
Free entry
Hidden gemCastles
Olsztyn Castle (Kraków-Częstochowa Upland)
Olsztyn
A white cylindrical tower rising from a limestone crag is one of the best-known silhouettes on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The ruins of the castle in Olsztyn near Częstochowa hold the story of a governor starved to death, a dramatic de…
Hidden gemCastles
Old Castle in Żywiec
Żywiec
The Old Castle in Żywiec passed through the hands of the Skrzyński and Komorowski families, Queen Constance, the Wielopolskis and the Habsburgs — and each of them left a mark. The most valuable is the Renaissance arcaded courtyard, modelle…
Hidden gemLakes
Goczałkowice Reservoir
Goczałkowice-Zdrój
Beneath the surface of Goczałkowice Reservoir lies the centre of the former village of Zarzecze, church and all, along with the historic border between Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia. Filled in 1956, this reservoir on the Vistula covers…
60–180 min Free entry
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Klimczok
Bystra
In the early 19th century nobody called this peak Klimczok: it was known as Goryczna Skałka, and its present name came from a Romantic-era tale of an outlaw who supposedly hid in a cave below the summit. Klimczok (1,117 m) is one of the mo…