Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Gardens
Gliwice
Right in the centre of Gliwice, between Sienkiewicza street and the city's east–west expressway, lies a fenced park with cast-iron lions, an oak more than two hundred years old and a palm house in the middle. Fryderyk Chopin Park was creat…
Gardens
Katowice
In 1928 two lionesses moved into this Katowice park – a gift from the owner of a circus in Dresden. The lions are long gone, but Tadeusz Kościuszko Park is still the most valuable green space in Katowice: with a 16th-century wooden church…
Landscape parks
Kocierz Rychwałdzki
Little Beskids Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Beskidu Małego, roughly "PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee BES-kee-doo MAH-weh-go") is a quiet mountain park in southern Poland, between the towns of Bielsko-Biała, Żywiec and Wadowice. Gentle fore…
Landscape parks
Brenna
Silesian Beskids Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Beskidu Śląskiego, roughly "PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee BES-kee-doo SHLOHN-skee-eh-go") is the largest mountain landscape park in Silesia, southern Poland: almost 39,000 hectares of forest,…
Landscape parks
Kotowice
The Eagles' Nests Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Orlich Gniazd, OR-leekh GNYAHZ-d) is a Jurassic landscape of limestone rock towers and medieval castle ruins in southern Poland, between Mstów near Częstochowa and the Biała Przemsza vall…
Gardens
Sosnowiec
In the 1960s miners from the Kazimierz-Juliusz colliery, scouts and local residents of Kazimierz Górniczy gave up their free time to drain marshland here, shape the banks of the ponds and plant trees. The result was the Leśna sports and le…
Amusement parks
Chorzów
On the hardest route of the Silesia Rope Park, the obstacles hang as high as 10.5 m above the ground, and the course is considered one of the most demanding in Poland. The park lies within the Silesian Park in Chorzów, at ul. Dojazdowa 1 o…
Amusement parks
Podzamcze
Among the beech trees at the foot of the ruined Ogrodzieniec Castle, platforms, walkways and ropes are strung several metres – in places over ten metres – above the ground. AdrenaLinaPark in Podzamcze has been running since 2006 and is one…
Amusement parks
Podzamcze
The Miniature Park in Podzamcze (Ogrodzieniec municipality) lies at the foot of the Ogrodzieniec Castle ruins and shows the entire Trail of the Eagles' Nests at a scale of 1:25 – from Kraków to Częstochowa. The models of the Jurassic castl…
Amusement parks
Podzamcze
The whole Trail of the Eagles' Nests – the chain of castles from Kraków to Częstochowa – fitted into one garden at a scale of 1:25, complete with valleys, canyons and cliffs topped by castles. That is the signature part of Ogrodzieniec Par…
Amusement parks
Zbrosławice
Camels, antelopes, ostriches and meerkats a few kilometres from Tarnowskie Góry: the Adventure and Attractions Park in Wilkowice (Zbrosławice municipality) combines a small zoo, large playgrounds and a place to relax by the ponds. It cover…
Gardens
Tarnowskie Góry
Repty Park (Park w Reptach, roughly "REP-tih") in Tarnowskie Góry is a 19th-century landscape park of about 200 hectares (500 acres), laid out by the aristocratic Henckel von Donnersmarck family on the site of a former deer park. Old beech…
Gardens
Sosnowiec
On the banks of the Czarna Przemsza river, a few hundred metres from central Sosnowiec, stands the oldest building in the city: Sielecki Castle, whose origins go back to the 15th century. Around it spreads Sielecki Park, more than 20 hecta…
Gardens
Chorzów
Where trees grow today, in 1950 there were spoil heaps, illegal mine shafts and marshland. Silesian Park (Park Śląski) in Chorzów – until 2012 called the Jerzy Ziętek Provincial Park of Culture and Recreation – covers 535 hectares and is o…
Gardens
Świerklaniec
Around 200 hectares of greenery, more than 8 ha of ponds and canals, and avenues laid out in the spirit of Peter Joseph Lenné: Świerklaniec Park is one of the finest landscape parks in Upper Silesia. It was the setting of the Henckel von D…
Gardens
Złoty Potok
In the park at Złoty Potok stands a memorial boulder with an inscription recalling that Jan Kiepura, later a world-famous tenor, attended the nursery school run here by Countess Stefania Raczyńska. It is a good starting point for a walk th…
Gardens
Goczałkowice-Zdrój
The Spa Park in Goczałkowice-Zdrój is the green heart of one of only two spa resorts in the Silesian Voivodeship (the other is Ustroń). Historic pavilions from the second half of the 19th century stand along its paths, and the most valuabl…
Gardens
Częstochowa
The sundial beside the former observatory in Staszic Park was carved from a block of black granite that once formed the base of a monument to Tsar Alexander II, which stood in front of the Jasna Góra monastery from 1889 to 1917. It is one…
Other
Ustroń
Ustroń is the only town in the Silesian Beskids with official spa status, yet for a long time it had no pump room of its own. Today a glazed pavilion stands in the Spa Park in Zawodzie, on ul. Sanatoryjna, its shape echoing Ustroń's famous…
Mountains & peaks
Korbielów
Pilsko is the mountain that rises right above Korbielów. Its broad dome stands about 1,000 metres above the valleys and 200–300 metres above neighbouring peaks. The main summit (1,557 m) is the second highest in the Żywiec Beskids after Ba…
Viewpoints
Pyrzowice
The plane-spotting platforms at Katowice Airport in Pyrzowice (say: pih-zho-VEE-tseh) are two free, purpose-built viewing decks where you can watch and photograph airliners taking off, landing and taxiing at close range. The airport built…
Lakes
Czernichów
The lake beside Czernichów's beach was designed by the man who became Poland's first president. Gabriel Narutowicz, a hydraulic engineer, drew up the design for the dam on the Soła river together with Tadeusz Baecker, creating Lake Międzyb…
Lakes
Dąbrowa Górnicza
Pogoria III in Dąbrowa Górnicza (say "DOM-brova goor-NEE-cha") is the most popular lake for summer fun in Poland's Upper Silesian metropolitan area: a man-made lake of about 205 hectares (500 acres) with a city beach, lifeguarded swimming…
Lakes
Dąbrowa Górnicza
The Kuźnica Warężyńska Reservoir, known locally simply as Pogoria IV, is the youngest and largest lake in the Dąbrowa Lake District: 560 ha of water in a former sand pit, up to 23 m deep. It lies within Dąbrowa Górnicza and the municipalit…