Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Nature
gmina Kroczyce
The Kraków-Częstochowa Upland – the "Polish Jura" – is a belt of limestone outcrops about 80 km long between Kraków and Częstochowa, and the Kroczyce municipality sits in its most rewarding part for climbers. On the Skały Kroczyckie ridge,…
Palaces
Żory
Not so many years ago, rain poured through the holes in the roof of Baranowice Palace and the walls were soaking up damp. Today the restored residence on the edge of a park with ancient oaks is a cultural centre, gallery and workshop venue…
Palaces
Świerklaniec
The palace in Nakło Śląskie looks as if it had been lifted from the English countryside: Tudor-style neo-Gothic, stepped gables and a slender tower raised in 1891. It was built by one of Upper Silesia's richest industrialists, Count Hugo I…
Palaces
Czechowice-Dziedzice
On Zamkowa Street in Czechowice-Dziedzice stands a Baroque palace with Rococo stucco work, built by the Kotuliński family and later embellished by the Counts Renard. It is one of the most carefully restored residences of the former Duchy o…
Palaces
Będzin
Not far from Będzin Castle, in the Gzichów district, stands a palace whose drawing rooms revealed ancient commanders – Hannibal, Pompey and Scipio Africanus – only during restoration work in the late 20th century. The Mieroszewski Palace o…
Palaces
Miasteczko Śląskie
Beside a forest track in Bibiela, a village district of Miasteczko Śląskie, stands a hunting lodge built in 1890 by the Henckel von Donnersmarck family, owners of the surrounding forests. Almost a century later it gained a second life in a…
Palaces
Tarnowskie Góry
Two towers with onion domes, a mansard roof and an attic crowned by figures of a hunter, a worker, a farmer and a fisherman – Brynek Palace is one of the grandest magnate residences in Upper Silesia. It owes its present eclectic form to Co…
Palaces
Bytom
All that remains of the palace locals called a castle is one neo-Gothic annex with battlements and a low mound covering the remains of the main building. While the annex was being rebuilt in 2019–2020, workers came across a crypt and the r…
Palaces
Kalety
From 18 to 20 November 1900, Emperor Wilhelm II himself shot pheasants in the forests around Zielona, and the hunts started and ended at Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck's hunting lodge. After the war, foresters' workshops reduced the…
Palaces
Koszęcin
Koszęcin Palace (pronounced roughly "ko-SHEN-cheen") is a large late-neoclassical palace in a landscaped park in Silesia, southern Poland, and since 1953 the home of the Śląsk Song and Dance Ensemble – one of Poland's best-known folk ensem…
Palaces
Pietrowice Wielkie
Krowiarki Palace in the Pietrowice Wielkie district, north-west of Racibórz, is one of the largest residences in Upper Silesia: about 6,500 m² of floor space, 115 rooms and 30 cellars forming an underground labyrinth. The National Heritage…
Palaces
Racibórz
The Łubowice Palace ruins (Łubowice: woo-boh-VEE-tseh) mark the birthplace of Joseph von Eichendorff, one of the best-loved poets of German Romanticism, in the countryside of Upper Silesia in southern Poland. All that remains of the manor…
Palaces
Pilica
Pilica Palace (Pałac w Pilicy, roughly "PEE-lee-tsah"), also known as Pilica Castle, is one of the most unusual stately homes in southern Poland. It is a late-Renaissance Italian-style villa set inside a 17th-century bastion fortress, in a…
Palaces
Rudziniec
With its clock tower, spires and dormers, this red-brick palace looks as if it had been carried over from the Netherlands to the edge of the A4 motorway. Count Franz II von Ballestrem built it in 1882–1885 for 386,000 marks, and after 1945…
Palaces
Rajcza
Prince Władysław Lubomirski's guests at Rajcza Palace included the composers Karol Szymanowski, Grzegorz Fitelberg and Ludomir Różycki. The neo-Renaissance residence on the Soła river in the Żywiec Beskids was remodelled for the prince in…
Palaces
Siemianowice Śląskie
In the town park in the centre of Siemianowice Śląskie stands a residence whose main block alone has a volume of more than 23,000 m³. The palace was begun in the 17th century by the Mieroszewski family, enlarged by the Henckel von Donnersm…
Palaces
Rudnik
Roofless, with saplings sprouting from its cornices, Sławików Palace still impresses with its scale: three storeys, a facade 19 windows wide, a triangular pediment with reliefs and towers at either end. It is one of three great ruined resi…
Palaces
Świerklaniec
Świerklaniec Palace, known as the Little Versailles, was one of the grandest residences in Europe of its day – and it has been gone for more than half a century. Built in 1868–1875/1876 for Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, it burned down in…
Palaces
Zawiercie
This brick villa with a tower and a half-timbered gable in the centre of Zawiercie was once the home of the man who ran the town's largest factory. The Szymański Palace was built for Stanisław Szymański, director of the Zawiercie Joint-Sto…
Gardens
Gliwice
The Gliwice Palm House (Palmiarnia Miejska, roughly "pahl-MYAR-nya") is a large botanical glasshouse in Chopin Park in the center of Gliwice, a city in Poland's Upper Silesian industrial region. Its five pavilions hold palms brought here i…
Lakes
Tychy
Lake Paprocany, known locally simply as Paprocany, is not a natural lake. It is an artificial reservoir of 132 ha, dammed for a former ironworks whose water cooled the furnace casing and drove the bellows and the hammer. Today it is the mo…
Amusement parks
Podzamcze
Turn a crank and watch the water in a spinning globe form a funnel, step onto a rotating platform, then strap into a rollover simulator to feel what happens to your body in an overturning car. The Physics Experience Park in Podzamcze is an…
Gardens
Siemianowice Śląskie
Górnik Park in Michałkowice, a district of Siemianowice Śląskie, is a former manor park surrounding a palace known locally as the Zameczek (Little Castle). On its edge stands a neo-Gothic forester's and gardener's house, anglers sit by the…
Gardens
Jaworzno
Gródek Park in Jaworzno (pronounced roughly "GROO-dek" and "yah-VOZH-noh"), nicknamed the "Polish Maldives," is a flooded former dolomite quarry turned public park, with turquoise lakes, a winding wooden boardwalk and gazebos standing in t…