Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
Złotoryja
Legend has it that after the plague of 1553 only seven men survived in Złotoryja, and on Christmas Eve they met in the market square to sing hymns together. Ever since, a shared town Christmas Eve on the square has been a tradition, revive…
Monuments & mounds
Sobótka
On the slopes of Ślęża and in Sobótka stand granite statues that researchers link with the Celtic cultural sphere and usually date to the La Tène period, around 400–200 BC. The best known are the Bear on the summit and the Maiden with a Fi…
Technical monuments
Świdnica
On the main avenue of General Władysław Sikorski Park in Świdnica stands a red triplane that is hard to walk past. It is a replica of the Fokker Dr.I, the aircraft forever linked with Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron", who spent part…
Churches & monasteries
Bardo
On the high altar of the Baroque basilica in Bardo stands a figure that is easy to miss: it is just 43 cm tall. This is the Romanesque Enthroned Madonna from the 12th century, regarded as the oldest wooden sculpture in Lower Silesia and a…
Mountains & peaks
Kowary
People have lived on the Okraj Pass, at 1,046 m above sea level, for more than three hundred years – the first huts were put up in 1690 by exiled Habsburg officers. Today's PTTK hostel is a timber complex from 1975, right next to the road…
Mountains & peaks
Świeradów-Zdrój
The hostel on Stóg Izerski stands about 50 metres below the summit, at 1,060 m above sea level, and is the westernmost mountain hostel on the Polish side of the Sudetes. It opened on 24 October 1924 as the Heufuderbaude and stayed open wit…
Other
Duszniki-Zdrój
The hostel's name comes neither from a legend nor from a map: a stuffed mouflon head with massive curled horns hangs in the dining room. The PTTK "Pod Muflonem" ("Under the Mouflon") hostel stands at 690 m on the slopes of Ptasia Góra (745…
Mountains & peaks
Karpacz
Samotnia mountain hut and the glacial lake Mały Staw (MAH-wee stahv, "Little Pond") form one of the most photogenic spots in Poland's Karkonosze, the Polish half of the Giant Mountains. The hut sits right on the shore of the lake, beneath…
Hiking & tourist trails
Sułów
The cycle path along the former narrow-gauge railway is roughly 20 km of flat riding in the Barycz Valley, laid on the embankment of the dismantled Żmigród–Milicz District Railway. The stretch from Sułów via Pracze, Postolin and Milicz to…
Nature
Szczytna
On the south-eastern edge of the Table Mountains plateau, between Batorów and the Radków Rocks, dozens of sandstone outcrops shaped like mushrooms, clubs, towers and gateways stand in spruce forest. The Rock Mushrooms (Skalne Grzyby, Germa…
Museums
Kudowa-Zdrój
On the slope of Pstrążnica hill, between 515 and 595 m above sea level, lies the only open-air museum in Lower Silesia dedicated to wooden folk architecture – the Museum of Folk Culture of the Sudeten Foothills in Pstrążna, a district of t…
Mountains & peaks
Janowice Wielkie
Skopiec (say "SKOH-pyets") is a forested summit in the Kaczawskie Mountains of Lower Silesia, southwest Poland, rising above the village of Komarno near Wojcieszów. It is one of the easiest peaks on the Crown of Polish Mountains, a popular…
Viewpoints
Wrocław
The Sky Tower Observation Deck in Wrocław (VROTS-wahv) sits on the 49th floor, about 200 m above the city, in the tallest building in Lower Silesia. From the top you can take in the whole of Wrocław: the Oder River and its islands, the spi…
Viewpoints
Świeradów-Zdrój
Above the spa rooftops of Świeradów-Zdrój rises Sky Walk — Poland's tallest observation tower, with a glass terrace suspended 62 metres above the ground. There are no stairs to climb: a gently winding, 850-metre wooden walkway takes you to…
Mountains & peaks
Sobótka
Ślęża ("SHLEN-zha", 718 m) is a lone forested mountain rising straight out of the Silesian plain about 30 km southwest of Wrocław. Known as the Silesian Olympus, it was a pagan sacred site long before Poland's baptism, and its slopes still…
Landscape parks
Sobótka
During two Scandinavian glaciations the solitary Ślęża stood above the ice sheet like an island — geologists call such a peak a nunatak, and the gabbro boulder fields on its slopes are a souvenir of that era. Ślęża Landscape Park, establis…
Mountains & peaks
Karpniki
Sokolik and Krzyżna Góra (roughly "SOH-koh-leek" and "KSHIZH-nah GOO-rah") are the two granite summits of the Falcon Mountains (Góry Sokole), a small range above the village of Karpniki in Lower Silesia, southwestern Poland. A short loop f…
Other
Bardo
Between the Kłodzko Valley and Bardo, the Nysa Kłodzka cuts through the Bardo Mountains in five great meanders, in a valley some 150 metres deep. By raft you travel the whole gorge – just under 15 km in 2.5–3.5 hours – from the palace comp…
Other
Ruda Sułowska
Between Milicz and Sułów the water level on a ten-kilometre stretch of the Barycz drops by no more than 30 cm. The river's average gradient of about 0.035% is among the lowest of any Polish lowland river – which is why paddling here is so…
Museums
Złoty Stok
A medieval miner had no electricity to pump water out of the mine – he had his legs. At the Medieval Mining Village in Złoty Stok you can step inside a huge treadwheel and set it turning yourself, then lift a load dozens of times heavier t…
Historic sites
Zgorzelec
On the freezing night of 15 January 1941, in theatre barrack 27 B, the prisoner Olivier Messiaen and three fellow inmates performed the "Quartet for the End of Time" for the first time. Around 400 prisoners and guards listened. It is now o…
Landmarks
Wrocław
At the entrance to Stare Jatki from Odrzańska Street stands a group of bronze animals – a goose with an egg, a goat, a pig, a piglet, a duck, a rabbit and a giant rooster – and a plaque in the cobbles reads: "In honour of slaughtered anima…
Mountains & peaks
Świeradów-Zdrój
On the southern slopes of Stóg, many small streams come together to form the Jizera (Izera), one of the largest rivers in the Czech Republic. The summit (1,105 m) at the western end of the High Ridge of the Jizera Mountains is one of the h…
Mountains & peaks
Szklarska Poręba
Szrenica (pronounced shreh-NEE-tsa, 1,362 m) is the rounded granite summit that towers over the resort town of Szklarska Poręba in Poland's Karkonosze, or Giant Mountains. It is one of the easiest high viewpoints in the range to reach: a t…