Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Technical monuments
Chorzów
Until 1934 Chorzów was called Królewska Huta – Royal Ironworks – after the plant around which the town grew. The hall of that ironworks' former power station now houses the Museum of Metallurgy, the first museum in Poland devoted entirely…
Museums
Istebna
A highlander from Istebna who studied in Kraków under Mehoffer and Fałat and later in Paris won a bronze medal at an exhibition in Paris in 1937, then spent the last decades of his life working in near obscurity. Jan Wałach (1884–1979), a…
Museums
Jaworzno
The first hard-coal mine on Polish soil opened in the 1760s in Szczakowa, today a district of Jaworzno. The Jaworzno City Museum tells that story in a building that once belonged to a colliery, and alongside mining it covers a subject the…
Museums
Katowice
Until the 1980s, women from Nikiszowiec carried baskets of bed linen here, scrubbed it on washboards in masonry troughs and ran it through an electric mangle. Today the old laundry at Rymarska 4 houses the City Ethnology Department of the…
Museums
Pszczyna
In a low house with a shingle roof on Pszczyna's pedestrian street, you can print your own souvenir sheet on a historic press. The Wojciech Korfanty Silesian Press Museum describes itself as the only museum of its kind in Poland that, besi…
Museums
Lubliniec
At ul. Edyty Stein 2 in Lubliniec stands the townhouse where Edith Stein's grandparents – the Courant family – lived. Since 28 February 2009 its upper floor has housed the Pro Memoria Edith Stein Museum, devoted to the philosopher, Carmeli…
Technical monuments
Częstochowa
The Match Production Museum in Częstochowa (say "chen-stoh-HOH-vah") is the only museum of its kind in Poland: a historic match factory, the oldest on Polish soil, with its 1920s–30s production line still in place. It is a must for fans of…
Museums
Cieszyn
The Museum of Cieszyn Silesia is the oldest public museum in Poland and one of the oldest in Central Europe – it was founded in 1802 by the priest Leopold Jan Szersznik, who opened his collections to visitors. Since 1931 it has occupied th…
Museums
Skoczów
In the cellar of the house at Rynek 2, right next to Skoczów town hall, John Sarkander was born according to 17th-century accounts. He was a priest tortured to death in Olomouc in 1620 and canonised by John Paul II in 1995. Today the cella…
Museums
Dąbrowa Górnicza
The Sztygarka Town Museum tells the story of the Dąbrowa Basin (Zagłębie Dąbrowskie) in a Neoclassical building at ul. Legionów Polskich 69 in Dąbrowa Górnicza, and its biggest draw is the Training Mine – real underground workings where fu…
Museums
Częstochowa
The Częstochowa Museum (Muzeum Częstochowskie; say "chen-sto-HO-vah") is the city museum of Częstochowa, the southern Polish city best known for the Jasna Góra Monastery and its Black Madonna icon. Its flagship branch is the 19th-century T…
Museums
Racibórz
Before she was born, her parents asked the oracle of the goddess Amaunet about their child's fate and were told: "she will live". That is the meaning of the name Djed-Amaunet-ius-ankh – an Egyptian woman who died around 2,800 years ago age…
Museums
Tarnowskie Góry
In August 1683, on his way to relieve Vienna, King Jan III Sobieski stopped in Tarnowskie Góry and said goodbye to Queen Marie Casimire here. Memorabilia of that episode, a painted 17th-century ceiling and a collection of old European pain…
Landmarks
Katowice
Nikiszowiec (say "nee-kee-SHOH-vyets") is a historic coal miners' housing estate in Katowice, southern Poland, and one of the most photogenic places in the whole Upper Silesia region. Built more than a century ago, its nine red-brick block…
Other
Katowice
The NOSPR building in Katowice, home of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, is one of Europe's finest modern concert halls and the most striking piece of architecture in the city. Clad in dark brick with vivid red recesses, it st…
Amusement parks
Brenna
On the slope of Grabowa above Brenna, around the Chata Grabowa mountain hut, the hosts are Svarog, the Noon Witch and the Water Demon. The Fairy-Tale Garden is an open-air themed trail with characters from the legends and folk tales of the…
Gardens
Wilamowice
In Pisarzowice, a village in the Wilamowice district known for growing ornamental plants, the family-run Pudełko nursery keeps a Japanese garden that was created after the owners travelled to Japan. Stone paths lead between ponds with smal…
Gardens
Goczałkowice-Zdrój
The Kapias Gardens in Goczałkowice-Zdrój are the show gardens of a family-run nursery where you can spend a whole day – without paying a single złoty for admission. More than 30 themed gardens and corners spread over about 4.5 ha: from Jap…
Castles
Podzamcze
After dark, the ruins of Ogrodzieniec Castle in Podzamcze turn into the Ogrodzieniec Fortress of Light (Ogrodzieniecka Twierdza Światła). Glowing halberdiers stand at the gates of the courtyard, a carriage with horses races across the oute…
Nature
Kroczyce
At the top of a limestone crag in the village of Piaseczno gapes a window measuring about 7 × 5 m – hence the name Okiennik Wielki, roughly "the Great Window Rock", one of the symbols of the northern Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, known as the…
Monuments & mounds
Olsztyn
At the entrance to Olsztyn near Częstochowa, travellers are greeted by a seven-metre wooden Guardian Angel. The sculpture by folk artist Jan Wewiór was set up on Pańska Góra hill in 2007 and has since become the emblem of this small Jurass…
Landmarks
Zabrze
Zandka is a company housing estate in the centre of Zabrze, built in 1903–1922 in the garden-city spirit for workers of the Donnersmarck ironworks. Around 40 multi-family houses of brick and half-timbering, with steep roofs and projecting…
Other
Zbrosławice
Zbrosławice in Tarnowskie Góry County is a village where horses are part of the landscape. The Zbrosławice municipality is known for its many riding centres, and the centre in Zbrosławice itself is a good base for riding lessons and horseb…
Ski resorts
Wisła
Stożek in Wisła was where the town's first chairlift opened, in the 2004/2005 season – a two-seater about 800 m long. The resort lies in the Łabajów district, about 5 km south-west of the centre, on the eastern slope of Stożek Wielki (978…