Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Hidden gemLakes
gmina Warta
In summer the water level at Jeziorsko can drop by as much as 5.5 metres, exposing wide muddy shallows in the southern part of the reservoir. For people that is a drawback; for birds it is a feeding ground. More than 250 species have been…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
gmina Kartuzy
From the terrace on Złota Góra ("Golden Hill") you can see two Kashubian lakes at once – Wielkie Brodno and Ostrzyckie – and on a clear day also the Szymbark Hills with Wieżyca, the highest point in Pomerania. Every year around the turn of…
Other
Kraków
Céline Dion, the Scorpions, Krzysztof Krawczyk and the TV detective Lieutenant Borewicz all share the same stretch of riverside path below Wawel Hill. Kraków's Avenue of Stars (Aleja Gwiazd) is a row of brass stars set into the paving of t…
Churches & monasteries
Augustów
The two 50-metre towers of the basilica can be seen from far above the rooftops of central Augustów – although they were only rebuilt in 1986, more than forty years after the war. The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the town's mos…
Churches & monasteries
Bielsk Podlaski
The oldest painting in the Bielsk basilica is a century and a half older than the church itself: a Crucifixion of 1622, painted as a memorial to Hanna Kadłubowska, wife of the local scribe Stanisław Kulesza. The Church of the Nativity of M…
Churches & monasteries
Olkusz
St. Andrew's Basilica in Olkusz (say "OL-koosh") is the Gothic parish church of Poland's old "Silver Town," standing at the corner of the Market Square about 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Kraków. Two treasures make it worth a detour: the l…
Churches & monasteries
Katowice
Panewniki Basilica – officially the Basilica of St. Louis the King and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – is a Neo-Romanesque Franciscan church in Katowice, southern Poland, best known for one of the largest moving nativity scenes…
Churches & monasteries
Trzemeszno
From outside you notice the dome first, yet the oldest parts of this church go back to the reign of Duke Bolesław the Wrymouth. The Basilica of the Assumption and St Michael the Archangel in Trzemeszno is a former monastery church of the C…
Mountains & peaks
Brenna
People climb Błatnia (917 m) for the meadow and the view: from the grassy mound on the summit you can see almost the entire Silesian Beskids, from Klimczok and Skrzyczne to Barania Góra, and on clear days even the peaks of the Malá Fatra i…
Churches & monasteries
Białystok
Its crystal-shaped dome is meant to evoke the imagery of the Book of Revelation, and beneath it parishioners spent years pouring foundations and carrying bricks themselves. The Orthodox Church of the Resurrection in Białystok's Leśna Dolin…
Landmarks
Bytom
Locals call it Bytom's Powązki, after Warsaw's famous historic cemetery, and the comparison fits: beneath old trees lie a mayor who ran the town for 37 years, a priest who fought for the Polish language in Upper Silesia, Bytom's best-known…
Landmarks
Krynki
In 1897 nearly 85% of Krynki's five thousand inhabitants were Jewish, and what remains of that community today is above all a hill on the northern edge of town. The cemetery on Zaułek Zagumienny Street covers about 2.5 ha, and in the late…
Mountains & peaks
gmina Stronie Śląskie
Czarna Góra (pronounced roughly "CHAR-nah GOO-rah", meaning "Black Mountain") is a 1,205 m (3,953 ft) forested peak in the Śnieżnik Massif, part of the Sudetes on Poland's border with Czechia. Its slopes hold one of Lower Silesia's best-kn…
Mountains & peaks
Łodygowice
Until the 1970s hikers climbed Czupel without knowing they were standing on the roof of the Little Beskids (Beskid Mały) – at the time, Łamana Skała was thought to be the highest peak of the range. Only accurate surveys gave Czupel first p…
Museums
Wadowice
The John Paul II Family Home in Wadowice (say "vah-doh-VEE-tseh") is a biographical museum in the house where Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, was born on May 18, 1920. At its heart is the reconstructed apartment of the Wojtyła…
Landmarks
Białystok
On busy Jana Pawła II Avenue, at No. 62, stands a small Neoclassical rotunda with a domed roof and a columned portico that locals call Napoleon's House (Domek Napoleona). The name comes from a romantic legend – in reality it was a customs…
Churches & monasteries
Zamarski
First there was only the tower: for almost a century and a half the faithful prayed in an open space beneath a belfry, because there simply was no church. The wooden tower of St Roch's Church in Zamarski, rebuilt around 1585, is according…
Technical monuments
Radków
The Road of a Hundred Bends (Droga Stu Zakrętów, roughly "DRO-gah stoo zah-KREN-toof") is the most scenic stretch of regional road 387 in the Table Mountains of southwestern Poland. Running about 23 km from Radków through Karłów and the Li…
Zoos
Hel
The Hel Seal Sanctuary (Fokarium, roughly "foh-KAH-ryoom") is a small seal center at the tip of the Hel Peninsula on Poland's Baltic coast, run by the University of Gdańsk Marine Station. Here you can watch Baltic grey seals up close and l…
Mountains & peaks
Międzybrodzie Bialskie
Hrobacza Łąka (roughly "hro-BAH-chah WON-kah"; officially spelled Chrobacza Łąka) is an 828 m (2,717 ft) summit in the Little Beskids (Beskid Mały) of southern Poland. It is one of the easiest rewarding hikes near Bielsko-Biała. A 35-meter…
Mountains & peaks
gmina Bystrzyca Kłodzka
Karol Wojtyła first came to Igliczna in 1955, walking from Kudowa with a group of students from Kraków, and 28 years later, as pope, he crowned the small statue from its shrine in Wrocław. Igliczna (845 m) is a conical peak of the Śnieżnik…
Mountains & peaks
Poręba
Jagodna is the highest mountain in the Bystrzyckie Mountains and one of the peaks of the Crown of Polish Mountains, a popular list of the highest summits of each Polish range. The climb is gentle, and the reward is a 23-metre lookout tower…
Caves
Jerzmanowice
Nietoperzowa Cave (pronounced "nyeh-toh-peh-ZHOH-vah," Polish for "Bat Cave") in Jerzmanowice is one of the best-known show caves of the Polish Jura, the limestone upland just northwest of Kraków. A guided walk takes you through spacious,…
Lakes
Zagórze Śląskie
Beneath the waters of Lake Bystrzyckie lies the former village of Śląska Dolina (Schlesiertal), first recorded in 1548, and when the reservoir was drained in 2016 for repairs to the dam, its remains reappeared on the bottom. The lake is he…