Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Historic sites
Kłodzko
The Kłodzko Underground Tourist Route (say "KWOTS-ko") is a roughly 600 m (2,000 ft) walk through medieval cellars and tunnels beneath the old town of Kłodzko in southwestern Poland, about 90 km (55 miles) south of Wrocław. Townspeople dug…
Fortifications
Sierpnica
To this day nobody knows for certain what the concrete halls and tunnels cut into Osówka mountain from 1943 were meant for. Some say a secret headquarters for Hitler was being built here, others that it was underground armaments factories.…
Monuments & mounds
Bolesławiec
A dark obelisk about 10 metres tall, guarded by four lions, stands by the old town walls of Bolesławiec. It commemorates the Russian field marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, Napoleon's nemesis, who died here in 1813. The monument was designed by Kar…
Mountains & peaks
Sobótka
Tąpadła Pass (384 m above sea level) is a saddle in the Ślęża Massif that separates Ślęża from Radunia. For many hikes it is the starting point: there is a car park, the road from Świdnica to Sobótka crosses the pass, and several trails br…
Viewpoints
Ostroszowice
The viewing platform below Wrona stands at about 429 m above sea level on a yellow-marked trail above the village of Ostroszowice, near Bielawa. Wrona itself (458 m) is the highest hill of the Niemcza-Strzelin Hills and one of the Crown of…
Nature
Radków
On some of the sandstone towers of the Radków Rocks you can still see inscriptions carved by the Silesian Forestry Society in the first half of the 20th century — traces of the time when these cliffs bore the German name Wünschelburger Leh…
Landmarks
Jawor
In 1895 Jawor's town hall burned almost to the ground – only the medieval tower survived. Within two years a new neo-Renaissance building rose around it, and its council chamber was fitted with stained-glass windows still regarded as the l…
Landmarks
Lubin
The white town hall with a copper-clad tower is the most recognisable building in Lubin, a town now known mainly for its copper mines. Inside is the Historical Museum, where you can step into a recreated flat of a mining family from the co…
Landmarks
Środa Śląska
On the wall of a Gothic cell in the tower of Środa's town hall, a prisoner once scratched the date "1413". It is one of the reminders of the time when the tower, built in the first half of the 14th century, served as a prison and torture c…
Landmarks
Trzebnica
The town hall with its clock tower closes off Trzebnica's market square, a few hundred metres from the Basilica of St Hedwig. Built in 1868, it combines civic offices with a small regional museum, and its stepped gables are a handy landmar…
Landmarks
Wrocław
The Old Town Hall in Wrocław (say "VROTS-wahf") is the showpiece of the city's Market Square and one of the best-preserved medieval town halls in Central Europe. Built over roughly 250 years, its brick walls, lacy stone gables and slender…
Nature
Lubawka
The Kruczy Kamień reserve protects the summit of Krucza Skała (681 m) and its southern slope, which drops in a cliff several dozen metres high into the Krucza Valley. It lies about 2.5 km south of the centre of Lubawka, in the Krucze Mount…
Churches & monasteries
Strzelin
Among post-war apartment blocks near the market square in Strzelin stands a small church whose round tower is one of the oldest buildings in Silesia. It is a former Romanesque stone rotunda, built in the 12th or 13th century and later turn…
Old towns & squares
Międzylesie
The market square in Międzylesie is not square at all – it is an elongated triangle, with a Baroque column topped by the Virgin Mary rising from a small green in the middle. It was put up after a run of disasters struck the town at the end…
Old towns & squares
Lubomierz
Lubomierz escaped destruction in the Second World War, so its centre has kept the shape of a medieval market town. At its heart is plac Wolności (Freedom Square) – the old market place and main street in one, lined almost entirely with his…
Old towns & squares
Bolesławiec
In the Wedding Hall of Bolesławiec town hall, newlyweds stand beneath a vault that Wendel Roskopf modelled on the royal Vladislav Hall at Prague Castle. That is the best reason to look not only into the ceramic shop windows on Bolesławiec'…
Old towns & squares
Bolków
Bolków's market square is not flat: it slopes towards the town hall, and steps lead up to the tall arcades of the houses on its west side. This layout is rare in Poland and easy to appreciate from any corner. Bolków Castle, also known toda…
Old towns & squares
Jelenia Góra
Jelenia Góra's Market Square (Town Hall Square, Plac Ratuszowy; say "YEH-lehn-yah GOO-rah") is the heart of an old Silesian linen-trading town: a rectangular square lined with arcaded houses, with a Baroque-Classical town hall in the middl…
Old towns & squares
Kłodzko
Kłodzko Market Square (say "KWOTS-ko"), officially Bolesław Chrobry Square, is the heart of the old town in Kłodzko, a historic fortress town in southwestern Poland about 90 km (55 miles) south of Wrocław. The square is famously sloped, li…
Old towns & squares
Lądek-Zdrój
Lądek-Zdrój is often called the oldest spa in what is now Poland, but its market square is older than the resort's fame. The town received its charter in 1282, and around the town hall you still find 17th- and 18th-century houses and a Bar…
Old towns & squares
Lwówek Śląski
The tower of Lwówek's town hall is exactly as tall as its south wall is long, and the whole building follows proportions of 1 to 3 — just like the square it stands on. The town hall is also larger than Wrocław's, even though the town today…
Old towns & squares
Świdnica
Świdnica Market Square (say shfeed-NEE-tsah) is one of the best-preserved old town squares in Lower Silesia, the historic region of southwest Poland around Wrocław. Colorful Baroque townhouses frame a town hall with a rebuilt lookout tower…
Old towns & squares
Wałbrzych
On top of a corner house on Wałbrzych's Market Square sits an anchor – in a mountain town hundreds of kilometres from the sea. It symbolises the old trading links between Wałbrzych (German: Waldenburg) and lands overseas. The town's oldest…
Old towns & squares
Ząbkowice Śląskie
Ząbkowice Śląskie's market square is dominated by a neo-Gothic town hall with a 72-metre tower – already the sixth on this spot since the town was founded. Its predecessor was destroyed in the great fire of 24 April 1858, and to pay for th…