Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Churches & monasteries
Sejny
The Basilica of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Sejny (SAY-nih) is one of only two churches in Poland built in the Vilnius Baroque style, and it is well worth a stop if you are exploring far northeastern Poland. Its twin-tower…
Churches & monasteries
Wambierzyce
A monumental stone staircase leads up to the basilica in Wambierzyce: 56 steps, with 33 in the central flight symbolising the years of Christ's life. Above it rises a palace-like façade 52.5 m high, its balustrade lined with statues of the…
Churches & monasteries
Kodeń
The Basilica of St Anne in Kodeń (say KO-den-yuh) is a late Renaissance church with a Baroque facade, home for more than 300 years to the icon of Our Lady of Kodeń, called the Queen of Podlasie and the Mother of Unity. It stands on the mar…
Churches & monasteries
Rybnik
Two soaring towers with copper spires can be seen from almost anywhere in Rybnik. The neo-Gothic Basilica of St Anthony, informally called the Cathedral of the Rybnik Land, is considered the tallest church in Upper Silesia – Polish sources…
Churches & monasteries
Zawiercie
Five red-brick towers above central Zawiercie are a reminder of the days when the town grew up around a huge cotton mill. The neo-Gothic Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul was built for the workers of the Zawiercie Joint-Stock Company (TAZ)…
Churches & monasteries
Gdańsk
St Bridget's Basilica in Gdańsk is a Gothic church in the Old Town known as the "church of Solidarity". In the 1980s it was one of the key centers of anti-communist opposition in Poland, and today it also draws visitors with its monumental…
Churches & monasteries
Ziębice
In German the church was called "Münster auf dem Berge", the minster on the hill, and the town itself Münsterberg. St George's Basilica has towered over the town since the second half of the 13th century, with a separate, free-standing bel…
Churches & monasteries
Braniewo
St. Catherine's Basilica in Braniewo (bra-NYEH-vo) is a monumental Gothic hall church with a 63 m tower, blown up in 1945 and rebuilt from ruins between 1979 and 1986. Today it is a minor basilica and a Fatima shrine, and its brick tower i…
Churches & monasteries
Bydgoszcz
The Basilica of St. Vincent de Paul in Bydgoszcz is a monumental neoclassical rotunda modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, standing on Ossolińskich Avenue just north of the city center. Vincentian priests began building it in 1924 as a votive…
Churches & monasteries
Strzegom
This Gothic church is about 80 metres long, built of local granite and basalt, and its tower still holds a bell cast in 1318 – one of the oldest working church bells in Poland. The Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Strzegom was built by…
Churches & monasteries
Bolesławiec
A slender 55-metre tower and a brick-and-white gable patterned with lozenges are Bolesławiec's landmark, visible from many streets in the Old Town. Inside the 15th-century Gothic hall lies a completely different world: Baroque altars, gild…
Churches & monasteries
Koronowo
At 72 metres long, the brick basilica above the Brda river has shaped Koronowo's skyline for more than seven centuries. It was raised by Cistercian monks who moved their abbey here from nearby Byszewo at the end of the 13th century, and it…
Churches & monasteries
Stara Wieś
Right next to Brzozów stands a late-baroque basilica with twin towers that looks as if it had been moved from a big city. Built by the Pauline Fathers and run by the Jesuits since the 19th century, it is one of the most important Marian sh…
Churches & monasteries
Leżajsk
The Basilica of the Annunciation in Leżajsk (say "LEH-zhysk") is the church of a fortified Bernardine (Franciscan) monastery in southeastern Poland and one of the region's most important Marian shrines. Built in the early 17th century on t…
Palaces
Warszawa
The name comes from the Italian "belvedere", a beautiful view: the palace stands on the highest stretch of the Warsaw escarpment, above Łazienki Park. Grand Duke Konstantin lived at Belweder, insurgents stormed it on the November Night of…
Landmarks
Lublin
The Grodzka Gate in Lublin, also known as the Jewish Gate, once linked the Christian Old Town with the Jewish quarter at the foot of the castle. Today it houses the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre Centre, one of Poland's most respected memory in…
Landmarks
Lublin
The Kraków Gate (Brama Krakowska) is the landmark everyone associates with Lublin: a 14th-century Gothic city gate topped with a Baroque dome, standing where the main street, Krakowskie Przedmieście, meets the Old Town. Inside is the Museu…
Technical monuments
Racibórz
In the north wing of the Piast Castle in Racibórz, beer has been brewed for more than 160 years – and the tradition of a ducal brewery at the castle goes back to the 16th century. The Castle Brewery (Browar Zamkowy) is one of the oldest wo…
Fortifications
Ustka
The Blücher Bunkers in Ustka are a surviving German coastal and anti-aircraft battery from the late 1930s, hidden among pine trees on a dune just west of the harbor in this Polish Baltic resort. Today the underground shelters house a moder…
Museums
Busko-Zdrój
The green wooden villa at the entrance to Busko's old town looks like a typical spa guest house from a century ago. Few spa visitors know that during the German occupation it housed a Nazi Special Court, and in the cellar a jail where up t…
Ski resorts
Szczyrk
The COS Skrzyczne ski area in Szczyrk (say "shchirk") is run by Poland's Central Sports Center on the slopes of Skrzyczne (1,257 m / 4,124 ft), the highest peak of the Silesian Beskids. In winter it offers some of the steepest runs in the…
Museums
Kalisz
The Dorotka Tower is the only surviving tower of Kalisz's medieval walls – out of eighteen that once reinforced them. Since 8 December 2018 it has housed the Centre of Kalisz Fairy Tales, Legends and the Town's Founding: a multimedia exhib…
Museums
Szczecin
The Dialogue Centre Przełomy (roughly "psheh-WOH-mih", meaning "Breakthroughs") is an underground branch of the National Museum in Szczecin, hidden beneath Solidarity Square. It tells the story of postwar Szczecin – from the moment German…
Museums
Podlesice
The Jura Natural and Cultural Heritage Center in Podlesice (pronounced roughly "pod-leh-SHEE-tseh") is a small visitor center at the foot of Góra Zborów, one of the most striking limestone hills of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland – the "Poli…