Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Technical monuments
Katowice
The Szyb Wilson Gallery at 1 Oswobodzenia Street in Katowice's Janów-Nikiszowiec district occupies the former miners' assembly hall and bathhouse of the Wilson shafts of the Wieczorek coal mine. It has been open since 2001, and with nearly…
Monuments & mounds
Łódź
On Piotrkowska Street you can sit on a bench next to the poet Julian Tuwim, lean on Arthur Rubinstein's piano, or pull up a chair at a table with the textile tycoons Karl Scheibler and Izrael Poznański. The Gallery of Great Łódź Citizens (…
Nature
Góra Świętej Anny
St Anne's Mountain (Góra Świętej Anny), known for its sanctuary and Calvary, is also a former volcano. Some 27 million years ago a cone of lava and tuff rose here, and the dark rock on which the monastery stands is what remains of it. Sinc…
Nature
gmina Niegowa
The Northern Jura Geopark is not a single spot on the map but a scattered geotourism area in the northern part of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, including the area around Olsztyn near Częstochowa. The Polish Geological Institute has publis…
Technical monuments
Łęknica
The Babina Former Mine Geo-Trail near Łęknica (pronounced "wenk-NEE-tsah") is a free forest trail past dozens of colorful lakes that formed in the pits of an old lignite mine on Poland's western border with Germany. It lies within the Musk…
Other
Jaworzno
In the walls of the former Sadowa Góra quarry in Jaworzno, quarrying exposed the bones of a nothosaur – a marine reptile from around 230 million years ago. On the quarry floor, a rippled stretch of Triassic seabed has survived, probably sh…
Landmarks
Katowice
Giszowiec (say "gee-SHOH-vyets") is a historic garden-city estate in Katowice, built in the early 1900s for coal miners and their families. Instead of tenement blocks, it has whitewashed cottages with steep red roofs, private gardens and t…
Monuments & mounds
Sokółka
At the source of the Łosośna river, in the village of Malawicze Górne near Sokółka, lies a boulder crowned with an Islamic crescent. It was funded by Arsłan Mucha to commemorate the Tatar Mucha family, for whom – as the carved inscription…
Nature
Kamienna Góra
Rock mushrooms, clubs, towers and pulpits – and some sandstone blocks look like stacks of pancakes piled up by a giant. The Głazy Krasnoludków ("Dwarfs' Rocks") nature reserve, also known as Gorzeszowskie Skałki, protects a 1,200-metre lin…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Eros Bendato in Kraków is the giant bronze head lying on its side in the Main Market Square (Rynek Główny, roughly "RIH-nek GWOOV-nih"), right next to the Town Hall Tower. Created by the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj, it is one of the most…
Hiking & tourist trails
Święta Katarzyna
The red-marked trail from Gołoszyce to Kuźniaki is the backbone of hiking in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains): it crosses Łysica and Łysa Góra, the boulder fields known as gołoborza, Święty Krzyż and Święta Katarzyna, an…
Churches & monasteries
Częstochowa
In one painting the artist himself helps Christ carry the cross; in another, Primate Wyszyński and John Paul II look on at the Passion; and the final scene is titled "Ascension to Częstochowa". The Golgotha of Jasna Góra is a cycle of 18 p…
Churches & monasteries
Licheń Stary
The Golgotha in Licheń Stary (pronounced roughly "LEE-hen STAH-ri") is an artificial hill of fieldstones and concrete inside the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Licheń, one of Poland's most visited Catholic pilgrimage sites. A winding path leads…
Viewpoints
Czajewszczyzna
This perfectly conical hill rising above the lakes of the Suwałki region looks like a volcano, which is why visitors nicknamed it the Fujiyama of Suwałki. Góra Cisowa is 256 metres above sea level and the symbol of Suwałki Landscape Park,…
Monuments & mounds
Cedynia
On a hill above the Oder valley, right by the village of Osinów Dolny, a 15-metre eagle spreads its wings for take-off. It commemorates the Battle of Cedynia on 24 June 972, one of the earliest victories of Poland's first historical ruler,…
Monuments & mounds
Będzin
Będzin's highest hill – St Dorothy's Hill, known locally as Dorotka (382 m) – has more nicknames than many a mountain: "Golden Hill", "Olympus of Zagłębie", "Jasna Góra of Zagłębie" (after Poland's most famous shrine). On the top stands a…
Nature
Woźniki
Góra Grojec (365 m) is a solitary limestone hill that stands out clearly from the fields between Psary and Lubsza in the Woźniki district of Silesia. Its name hints at an old stronghold ("gród" in Polish), and local tales – recorded among…
Viewpoints
Pelplin
On a hill just outside Pelplin stands a 33-metre steel cross, clad in shiny metal that reflects the landscape of the Kociewie region. The height is no accident – it symbolises the years of Jesus's life. Here, on 6 June 1999, Pope John Paul…
Viewpoints
Tuchomie
On a hill in Piaszno, in the Tuchomie district south-west of Bytów, stands a wooden viewing tower built not by the local authority but by a local farmer. Leman's Hill rises to 220 m above sea level and the tower is 20 m tall – from the pla…
Coast
Jastarnia
Góra Libek – officially Lubek – is a wooded dune between Kuźnica and Jastarnia on the Hel Peninsula. It rises a mere 12.5 m above sea level, yet it is the highest point on this stretch of the peninsula. Its name preserves the story of a sh…
Mountains & peaks
Chęciny
Miedzianka (pronounced roughly "myeh-JAN-kah", from the Polish word for copper) is a rocky limestone ridge, 354 m (1,161 ft) high, in the Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Mountains of south-central Poland. Its summit offers a full 360-degree vi…
National parks
Ojców
The trail across Okopy Hill runs right along the edge of limestone cliffs secured with rope railings, and one of the crags opens a view over the Prądnik Valley. The wooded summit hides the ramparts of a stronghold that medieval sources lin…
Viewpoints
Kudowa-Zdrój
Above the Spa Park in Kudowa-Zdrój rises a wooded ridge whose southern paths were already used by spa guests in the 18th century. Park Hill (Góra Parkowa, German Schlossberg, 477 m) hides the wooden Love Gazebo, a viewpoint over the town a…
Historic sites
Pilica
Before the town was moved to a more convenient site in the 14th century, Pilica stood right here, on a small hill above the river now called St Peter's Hill and known as the cradle of Pilica. Some 800 years ago this was the site of the fir…