Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Krzeszów
The Basilica of the Assumption in Krzeszów (say "KSHEH-shoof") is the centerpiece of a former Cistercian abbey often called the "European Pearl of the Baroque." Hidden in a small village in the foothills of the Sudetes in Lower Silesia, it…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Nowy Sącz
At the base of the north tower is a door on which four town trumpeters signed their names in 1617 – today the inscription is known mainly from a drawing by the painter Stanisław Wyspiański. The Basilica of St Margaret in Nowy Sącz is the t…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Strzelno
For more than two hundred years nobody knew that the Baroque pillars of the basilica in Strzelno concealed Romanesque columns covered in carvings. They were discovered only in 1946 by Professor Zdzisław Kępiński — and turned out to be one…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Węgrów
The sacristy of the basilica in Węgrów holds a mirror that, according to legend, belonged to Master Twardowski, the Polish Faust, and in 1969 Lech Wałęsa was married at its altar. These stories alone would justify a stop on the way to Podl…
Hidden gemLandmarks
Ojców
The Kraków Gate (Brama Krakowska) in Ojców (say "OY-tsoof") is a pair of towering limestone pillars that guard the mouth of a side gorge in the Prądnik Valley, the heart of Ojców National Park. Just 25 km north of Kraków, it is one of the…
Hidden gemLandmarks
Sandomierz
Of the four gates that once led into Sandomierz, only this one survives. The Gothic Opatów Gate, built under King Casimir the Great, is now the entrance to the Old Town and one of the best viewpoints in the city: from the terrace at the to…
Hidden gemMuseums
Łódź
The Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź (say: WOODGE) is Europe's largest museum devoted to textiles, fashion and the textile industry. It occupies the White Factory, a grand 19th-century cotton mill built by industrialist Ludwik Geyer at 2…
Hidden gemLandmarks
Zakopane
This small cemetery on Kościeliska Street holds around 500 graves, and roughly half belong to the people who created the legend of Zakopane: writers, painters, doctors, mountain guides and TOPR rescuers. Almost every headstone is a work of…
Hidden gemCoast
Rewa
From the beach in Rewa you can walk straight out to sea: a narrow strip of sand runs about one kilometre into the water, with a different bay on each side. The Kashubians call it Szpërk; visitors simply call it the Rewa Spit. Beyond its ti…
Hidden gemLakes
Zakopane
A mausoleum for the Romantic poet Juliusz Słowacki was once planned for the small, dwarf-pine-covered island in this lake — the 1909 idea was dropped after protests by nature conservationists. Czarny Staw Gąsienicowy ("Black Pond"), lying…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Wisła
In the Beskids the word "czupel" means a mountain with a distinct, pointed top, although this Czupel above Wisła is broad and massive rather than sharp. It rises to 882 m above sea level and about 400 metres above the valleys of Nowa Osada…
Hidden gemNature
Brzegi
Some of the spruces in this valley have been growing for more than 300 years, and a few for as long as 400 – it is one of the best-preserved natural forests in the Tatra Mountains. Roztoka Valley (Dolina Roztoki) leads from the Białka vall…
Hidden gemMuseums
Wiślica
On the wall of one room a small haloed figure kneels beneath a Gothic inscription reading "Lord, have mercy on us". Scholars believe it portrays Jan Długosz – the great medieval chronicler who in 1460 paid for this house for the clergy of…
Hidden gemMuseums
Kraków
Jan Matejko, Poland's great painter of national history, bought this manor house in 1876 with money from the sale of his painting "Batory at Pskov" – mainly so that his often sickly children could breathe country air. In Krzesławice, now p…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
gmina Kroczyce
According to local legend, witches from the surrounding villages gathered on this hill before flying off on their broomsticks to the witches' sabbath on Łysa Góra – hence the name Góra Zborów, roughly "Gathering Hill". Today it draws climb…
Hidden gemMuseums
Wrocław
Under a grassy mound on Na Grobli Street lies a 19th-century underground reservoir that stored Wrocław's drinking water for more than a hundred years. Today it houses Hydropolis, Poland's only science centre devoted entirely to water, wher…
Hidden gemCaves
Ojców
In 2018 archaeologists found finger bones of a Neanderthal child in Ciemna Cave ("Dark Cave") dating back about 115,000 years – the oldest known human remains in Poland. The cave on Koronna Hill in Ojców National Park has the largest chamb…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Jastrzębik
The gondola from the Czarny Potok valley reaches the top of Jaworzyna Krynicka in about seven minutes, and on a clear day the viewing platform on the roof of the top station looks out to the Tatras, the Bieszczady and Polonyna Rivna in Ukr…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Drohiczyn
In the 18th century the regional assemblies of the Podlasie nobility met beneath these vaults; during the Second World War the church was turned into a stable, and later into a shooting range. Today the Baroque Jesuit church above the Bug…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Radom
The two 72-metre towers of Radom Cathedral deliberately echo the taller tower of St Mary's Basilica in Kraków, and Józef Pius Dziekoński's whole design is a "younger sibling" of his St Michael and St Florian Cathedral in Warsaw's Praga dis…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Kraków
A 145-metre steel arch, two suspended decks and bronze acrobats who seem to be balancing above the Vistula – within a few years the Father Bernatek Footbridge has become one of the symbols of modern Kraków. It links Kazimierz with Podgórze…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Szczyrzyc
The Cistercians of Szczyrzyc have been praying, farming and – with interruptions – brewing beer for nearly eight centuries. Szczyrzyc Abbey is the only monastery of the order on Polish soil that has operated without a break since the Middl…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Klimontów
Grand Chancellor of the Crown Jerzy Ossoliński saw how churches were being built in Rome and wanted one of his own in the small town of Klimontów near Sandomierz. The result is St Joseph's Collegiate Church, with a rare elliptical nave sur…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Kruszwica
On the eastern shore of Lake Gopło stands a church that may have been a cathedral in the 12th century — before the bishops moved their seat to Włocławek. The Collegiate Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Kruszwica, built in 1120–1140, is o…