Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Technical monuments
Złoty Stok
In the Ochre Adit (Sztolnia Ochrowa) the walls are the colour of rust, mustard and orange. This is natural ochre – a pigment formed from iron compounds, the same one used for centuries in paints and cosmetics. The passage is about 130 metr…
Technical monuments
Walim
In the hillside above the village of Rzeczka, right by regional road 383, run rock-cut tunnels with a total length of about 500 m. This is the "Rzeczka" complex, one of seven underground sections of Project Riese ("Giant"), which Nazi Germ…
Technical monuments
Kowary
Sztolnie Kowary (SHTOL-nyeh ko-VAH-rih, "the Kowary Adits") is an underground tour through the former Liczyrzepa uranium mine in Kowary, a small town at the foot of Poland's Giant Mountains. On a one-hour guided walk you follow tunnels whe…
Fortifications
Walim
The Walim Adits (Polish: Sztolnie Walimskie, roughly "shtol-nyeh vah-leem-skyeh"), also known as the Rzeczka complex, are one of three sections of Nazi Germany's secret Project Riese that you can visit today. Hidden in the Owl Mountains of…
Hiking & tourist trails
Srebrna Góra
Srebrna Góra Enduro Trails is a bike park on the slopes around Srebrna Góra Fortress – the land around the Prussian stronghold, and even some of its structures, has been adapted for downhill mountain-bike trails. You ride among 18th-centur…
Viewpoints
Lądek-Zdrój
Trojak is the mountain spa guests in Lądek-Zdrój have been climbing for generations. The summit is 766 metres high, and from its gneiss rocks and a viewing platform built in 2022 you can see almost the whole Kłodzko Valley. A few minutes f…
Technical monuments
Nowa Ruda
Coal was mined in Nowa Ruda earlier than anywhere else in what is now Poland – the first records date from 1434. The last miners came to the surface in 1995, but the surviving Lech adit – the last part of the mine – has been open to touris…
Cities & towns
Jelenia Góra
Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój (say "chyeh-PLEE-tseh SHLON-skyeh ZDROO-y") is the spa district of Jelenia Góra and Poland's oldest spa town: therapeutic bathing in its hot springs has continued since the 13th century. Known in German as Bad Warmbr…
Cities & towns
Szczawno-Zdrój
Twice a day, at 12:00 and 20:00, Henryk Wieniawski's "Polish Song" rings out from the neo-Gothic Anna Tower above the spa park – the signature sound of Szczawno-Zdrój, a spa town at the foot of Chełmiec (850 m) in the Central Sudetes. Form…
Technical monuments
gmina Stronie Śląskie
On the road from Stronie Śląskie to Kletno, the route to the Bear Cave, stands an old lime kiln with a hexagonal base. The Łaskawy Kamień Lime Kiln in Stara Morawa is at once an industrial monument, a printmaking gallery, a Japanese garden…
Nature
Jawor
In the rocks above the Jawornik stream you can see pillow lavas – the traces of undersea volcanic eruptions from the early Palaeozoic. About a kilometre from the village of Myślibórz, on Rataj hill, the basalt columns of the Małe Organy My…
Technical monuments
Bolesławiec
On the western edge of Bolesławiec the railway leaps across the Bóbr valley on 489 metres of stone arches. Built from pale sandstone and opened in 1846, the viaduct looks like a Roman aqueduct transplanted to Lower Silesia – and trains bet…
Technical monuments
Srebrna Góra
The two brick viaducts on the slopes of Srebrna Góra are the most striking relic of the Owl Mountains Railway (Eulengebirgsbahn) – a line that had to use a rack rail on its steepest section. The Żdanów viaduct (about 24 m high) and the Sre…
Viewpoints
Boguszów-Gorce
Dzikowiec Wielki (836 m) in the Stone Mountains (Góry Kamienne) now has two observation towers, and the difference between them shows how viewpoints have changed. The older wooden one from 2014 resembles a hunter's high seat. The new one,…
Landmarks
Strzelin
In the cellars of this tower a starvation dungeon survives, its walls covered with inscriptions and drawings by prisoners dating from the 16th century. Above it now rises the rebuilt town hall tower of Strzelin, more than 70 metres tall, w…
Viewpoints
Wałbrzych
For years Borowa was a summit with no view – and an underrated one too: the neighbouring Chełmiec was included in the Crown of Polish Mountains because, when it was measured, the instruments had been placed on a tower. Only a correction sh…
Viewpoints
Jugów
Kalenica (964 m) is the third-highest peak of the Owl Mountains (Góry Sowie), after Wielka Sowa (1,015 m) and Mała Sowa (972 m). Its summit is forested, so the views come only from a steel observation tower from the 1930s, one of the symbo…
Viewpoints
Szczawno-Zdrój
Spa guests in Szczawno-Zdrój were already climbing Gediminas Hill for the view in 1823, when the resort doctor August Zemplin had a wooden pavilion built on the summit. The old tower collapsed at the end of the 20th century, and in 2022 a…
Nature
Złotoryja
About 15.5 million years ago a volcano was active on the edge of today's Złotoryja. The cone is long gone, but its vent remains, and quarry walls have sliced through it like a knife. As a result, Wilcza Góra, also called Wilkołak, offers a…
Waterfalls
Międzygórze
Wilczka Waterfall (Wodospad Wilczki, roughly "VEELCH-kee") in the mountain village of Międzygórze is one of the most dramatic waterfalls in the Polish Sudetes. The Wilczka stream drops 22 meters over a rock ledge into a deep pool and then…
Waterfalls
Radków
In the past the Pośna Waterfalls were thought to be among the most romantic spots in the Table Mountains, and wooden weirs were built on the stream to make the water fall more dramatically. Today they are a series of small cascades in a ro…
Monuments & mounds
Wrocław
Wrocław is home to about 1,040 bronze dwarfs: by cash machines, on window sills, under street lamps and at office doors. The thousandth figure was unveiled in September 2025 – and this whole little population has a surprisingly serious ori…
Ski resorts
Szklarska Poręba
The ski lifts in Szklarska Poręba (SHKLAR-ska po-REM-ba) belong to Szrenica Ski Arena, the largest ski area on the Polish side of the Karkonosze, or Giant Mountains. It spreads across the northern slopes of Szrenica peak, with three chairl…
Landmarks
Wrocław
Piasek Island in Wrocław (say "PYAH-sek," meaning "sand") is a small island in the Oder River between the Old Town and Cathedral Island, and it lies on the city's most scenic walking route. It's dominated by the Gothic Church of the Virgin…