Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Other
Wrocław
Słodowa Island is a small, green island in the Oder right next to the Old Town, where students sit on the grass on warm evenings and the riverside offers a view of the Baroque main building of the University of Wrocław. It looks like a pla…
Castles
Lubin
A small rise in the centre of Lubin was once home to a castle where Duke Louis I of Legnica lived for a decade. Swedish troops levelled it in 1641 and it was never rebuilt. What survives is the Gothic castle chapel, used as a gallery since…
Landmarks
Lądek-Zdrój
A green dome topped with a lantern rises above the centre of Lądek-Zdrój, and beneath it warm water has been flowing for more than three hundred years. The Wojciech spa house was built in 1678–1680, modelled on the Turkish baths of Buda, a…
Viewpoints
Szklarska Poręba
On regional road 358 between Szklarska Poręba and Świeradów-Zdrój, the road at 775 m above sea level doubles back almost 180 degrees over about 440 m. Death Bend has an ominous name, but today people come here mainly for the view: from bel…
Lakes
gmina Stronie Śląskie
At around 525 m above sea level, in the Morawka valley between the Śnieżnik Massif and the Bialskie Mountains, lies one of the highest artificial reservoirs in Poland. The Stara Morawa reservoir covers only 5.5 ha, but in summer it has a l…
Castles
Janowice Wielkie
Bolczów does not sit on a rock – it is built into one. Its medieval builders joined two granite crags at about 561 m above sea level with walls, creating a small courtyard with natural "towers" already in place. The ruins in the Rudawy Jan…
Castles
Jelenia Góra
Chojnik Castle (say "HOY-neek") is a ruined medieval fortress on a rocky, forested summit 627 m above Sobieszów, a district of Jelenia Góra in southwest Poland. It sits inside Karkonosze National Park, part of a cross-border UNESCO biosphe…
Castles
Lądek-Zdrój
On the summit of Karpiak, more than 780 metres above sea level, lie the stone foundations of a castle that for a century and a half was the capital of a small lordship in the Biała Lądecka valley. Its last lord robbed the countryside and e…
Castles
Głogów
A round brick tower crowned with a metal crown is the oldest part of a castle that hosted King Casimir IV Jagiellon, the future King Sigismund the Old and, three times, Napoleon. The Castle of the Dukes of Głogów was almost completely dest…
Castles
Trzebieszowice
In August 1813 King Frederick William III of Prussia came to this palace on the Biała Lądecka river to celebrate his birthday – and Tsar Alexander I was among the guests. Today the residence in Trzebieszowice goes by the name Zamek na Skal…
Castles
Płonina
The tower of Niesytno Castle is neither round nor square: it is an octagon with a sharp "beak" pointing east, and inside it are traces of two storeys of so-called warm rooms, lined with timber beams for insulation. Researchers consider thi…
Castles
Oleśnica
Stone lions holding coats of arms sit on the balustrade of the castle tower in Oleśnica, and on the east wing a duel painted in sgraffito has been going on for more than four hundred years. The Castle of the Dukes of Oleśnica, only about 3…
Castles
Grzmiąca
On the cone-shaped, rocky summit of Rogowiec, at 870 m above sea level, lie the remains of a fortress regarded as the highest-situated castle in Poland. Not much is left – fragments of walls and a three-metre stump of a tower – but the cli…
Castles
Dobromierz
A moat, stone footbridges and a 40-metre tower make Roztoka Castle look like a medieval fortress, yet inside it hides a suite of palatial salons where Netflix filmed "The Doll" and the third season of "1670". For almost 450 years this was…
Castles
Wrocław
Topacz Castle (Zamek Topacz, pronounced roughly "ZAH-mek TOH-pach") in the village of Ślęza, just beyond Wrocław's southern city limits, is a medieval residential tower that grew into a Renaissance manor and now operates as a hotel with re…
Castles
Karpniki
Karpniki Castle is one of the most romantic residences in the Jelenia Góra Valley: turrets and battlements reflected in the moat, with the wooded slopes of Krzyżna Góra in the Rudawy Janowickie hills behind. Beneath its mid-19th-century Go…
Castles
Milicz
The ruins of Milicz Castle stand by the Barycz River, in a 50-hectare park next to the classicist palace of the Maltzan family. The brick walls of this former seat of the bishops of Wrocław, built at the end of the 13th century, cannot be…
Castles
Uraz
The main tower of Uraz Castle is shaped like an equilateral triangle with sides of about 23 m – its sharp corners point towards the little town and the Oder, and tradition says that cannonballs were meant to "glance off" such walls. It is…
Technical monuments
Karpacz
The Łomnica tumbles down from Śnieżka so steeply that in its upper course it drops an average of 72 metres for every kilometre – and in heavy rain it turns into a destructive torrent full of boulders and trees. The granite dam in Karpacz,…
Technical monuments
Międzygórze
For most of the year there is no lake behind this dam, just a meadow and a stream. The stone wall in the lower part of Międzygórze closes a dry flood-control reservoir that fills only during major floods. When it does, it is quite a sight…
Technical monuments
Pilchowice
The Pilchowice Dam is Poland's tallest stone and arch dam: 62 m high and 290 m long at the crest. When it opened in 1912, it was the largest stone-and-concrete dam in Europe. Autumn 2026, however, is an unusual time to visit – because of r…
Ski resorts
Duszniki-Zdrój
Zieleniec Sport Arena (say "zhyeh-LEH-nyets") is the largest ski resort in the Kłodzko Valley and one of the most popular in Poland. It sits at 800–960 m (2,600–3,150 ft) on the eastern slopes of the Orlické (Eagle) Mountains, right on the…
Zoos
Wrocław
Wrocław Zoo (Zoo Wrocław; the city is pronounced VROTS-wahf) is the oldest zoo within Poland's present borders, open since 1865, and one of the most visited zoos in Europe. Around 12,000 animals of more than 1,100 species live on about 32…