Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Lakes
Żory
The dozen or so forest ponds between Żory, Szczejkowice and Palowice were created not by nature but by industry. In the 19th century bog iron ore was dug here in open pits for the Waleska ironworks, and water filled the hollows left behind…
Mountains & peaks
Szczyrk
Karkoszczonka is the lowest and easiest crossing of the main ridge of the Silesian Beskids between Szczyrk and Brenna – a broad saddle at roughly 723–729 m (sources give both figures) that locals have used for centuries. For a long time it…
Mountains & peaks
Rycerka Górna
Przegibek Pass (992 m) lies in the Wielka Racza range, only about 480 m from the Slovak border, and its main draw is the PTTK mountain hut – voted the best mountain hut in Poland by the hiking magazine "n.p.m." in 2009. From Rycerka Górna…
Mountains & peaks
Szczyrk
At 934 m the regional road 942 crosses the ridge of the Silesian Beskids and winds down in hairpins to Szczyrk on one side and Wisła on the other. Salmopol Pass is the highest road pass in the Silesian Beskids and the second highest in the…
Churches & monasteries
Mstów
For many pilgrims walking to the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa, this is the last stop and the first place from which they can see their goal – the monastery tower. On Przeprośna Górka (296 m above sea level) in Siedlec near Mstów, tr…
Technical monuments
Złoty Potok
In 1881 in Złoty Potok, rainbow trout eggs brought from California were ceremonially fertilised in front of invited guests, as if opening an important institution. That was the start of Count Edward Raczyński's trout farm, at the time the…
Nature
Poraj
Bird Island came about by chance: when the Warta river was dammed in 1978 and Poraj Reservoir was filled, a raised section of an old local road from Kuźnica Stara to Masłońskie was left above the water. Today it is a natural bird sanctuary…
Nature
Siedlec
Everyone knows the Błędów Desert, but a few kilometres from Złoty Potok the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland has a second, much smaller "desert". The Siedlec Desert covers about 25 ha of open sand near the village of Siedlec, with dunes up to 30…
Viewpoints
Zwardoń
The summit of Rachowiec is not covered by forest, and that is why this modest mountain above Zwardoń has some of the widest views in the area. Wielka Racza and Rycerzowa rise to the east, Slovakia's Malá Fatra range to the south and the Ba…
Museums
Częstochowa
Beside a viaduct on Aleja Pokoju in the Raków district lie people buried about 2,700 years ago – exactly where they were laid to rest. The Lusatian Culture Archaeological Reserve is a pavilion built directly over part of an ancient cemeter…
Nature
Jaworzno
The water in the Żabnik Valley is so clear that from the boardwalk you can see the sand on the bottom of the ponds. It comes from karst springs that rise in the Ciężkowice district on the eastern edge of Jaworzno and feed the Żabnik stream…
Nature
Racibórz
Eight ponds, dykes lined with century-old oaks and limes, and more than half of all bird species found in Poland. The Łężczok reserve on the edge of Racibórz and the Nędza district is a former Cistercian fish farm that since 1957 has belon…
Nature
Siedlec
Ostrężnik Nature Reserve covers just 4.1 ha, yet it holds a limestone rock riddled like Swiss cheese, the ruins of a mysterious 14th-century fortress and a spring that flows only when it pleases. It was created in 1960 to protect a patch o…
Nature
Złoty Potok
In Złoty Potok the Wiercica river is born in a beech forest among limestone rocks – one of them looks like a gateway, another is a cleft known as the Devil's Bridges. The Parkowe reserve has protected this corner of the Kraków-Częstochowa…
Nature
Tarnowskie Góry
Segiet Nature Reserve (say "SEH-gyet") is a beech-forest reserve on the border of Bytom and Tarnowskie Góry in Upper Silesia, about 20 km north of Katowice. It covers the top of Srebrna Góra, literally "Silver Hill" (347 m), where centurie…
Nature
Olsztyn
Just outside Olsztyn near Częstochowa, in full view of the castle hill, runs a chain of limestone hills hiding the deepest cave of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. The Sokole Góry ("Falcon Hills") reserve protects beech woods, crags and more…
Churches & monasteries
Siewierz
In the cemetery in Siewierz stands the little stone Church of St John the Baptist – one of the oldest churches in Poland. It was probably built in 1144 or 1164, and the magnate Piotr Włostowic is regarded as its founder. The building measu…
Churches & monasteries
Ogrodzieniec
On a rise in the centre of Giebło, a village in the municipality of Ogrodzieniec, stands the Church of St James the Apostle – one of the oldest Romanesque village churches in Lesser Poland. The exact building date is unknown, but analysis…
Landmarks
Świerklaniec
On a wooded hill east of Orzech, a village in the Świerklaniec municipality, stands a round stone tower that many take for the remains of a medieval castle. In fact it is an artificial ruin, most probably built in the 19th century as a gar…
Old towns & squares
Bielsko-Biała
The Market Square in Bielsko-Biała (roughly "BYEL-skoh BYAH-wah") is the heart of the city's Old Town, a sloping 80 × 60 m square on a hilltop where the medieval town of Bielsko was founded in the early 14th century. Lined with restored 18…
Old towns & squares
Cieszyn
Cieszyn Market Square is a rectangular square of around 6,800 m², with the St Florian fountain at its centre and a classicist town hall on its south side. It is lined with arcades and townhouses whose history goes back to the 16th century,…
Old towns & squares
Koziegłowy
In the middle of the market square in Koziegłowy, low stone walls rise out of the paving like a small ruin. They are the foundations of the old town hall, uncovered by archaeologists and deliberately left on show in the new surface. The re…
Old towns & squares
Olsztyn
High above Olsztyn's market square, on a six-metre pole, balances "W nieskończoność" ("Infinity"), a sculpture by Jerzy Kędziora, while a glass case nearby holds a 1:100 scale model of the castle. The original is visible from the square: t…
Old towns & squares
gmina Pilica
The trapezoid-shaped square in Pilica keeps the layout laid out when the town was chartered at the end of the 14th century – streets still leave from its corners exactly where the old roads to Kraków, Lelów, Żarnowiec and Sławków began. In…