Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Viewpoints
Radzionków
On a hill of the Tarnowskie Góry Ridge, 357 m above sea level, lies a park that Radzionków owes to the interwar years and to a man who later became governor of the Katowice province – Jerzy Ziętek. Its name, Księża Góra, means "Priests' Hi…
Nature
Żarki
Drive along regional road 792 from Żarki towards Jaworznik and you suddenly see where the Polish Jura ends. The limestone upland breaks off in a steep step, with the wide valley of the upper Warta River spread out below. This is the Jurass…
Nature
Kalety
This woodland meadow in Kalety, between the Miotek district and the town centre on Paderewskiego Street, is officially the ecological site "Purple Moor-Grass Meadow in Kalety". Locals call it the iris meadow because in June it fills with S…
Nature
Trzebnica
A short walk from the Basilica of St Hedwig, the Beech Forest begins – locals also call it Pustelnik, "the Hermit". Under tall beeches stand the chapels of an 18th-century Calvary, a brick forest church from 1886, a Lourdes grotto and the…
Nature
Warszawa
Kabacki Forest (Las Kabacki, roughly "lass kah-BAHTS-kee") is a protected nature reserve on the southern edge of Warsaw, covering more than 900 hectares of old mixed woodland right at the end of the city's M1 metro line. It is the easiest…
Nature
Olsztyn
From the High Gate in Olsztyn, a red-marked trail leads straight into a forest where it is easy to forget you are still in a city. Olsztyn City Forest covers 1,415.87 ha, entirely within the city limits, and Olsztyn describes it as the lar…
Nature
Katowice
The highest point in Katowice is not a tower block or a slag heap but the beech-covered Wanda Hill (Wzgórze Wandy, about 357 m above sea level). Its slopes hold the Las Murckowski nature reserve – a patch of mixed forest that comes closer…
Gardens
Człuchów
This wooded park on a former peninsula by the ruins of the Teutonic castle is named after a Prussian queen. Louise stopped in Człuchów in 1807 and was taken with the spot, and four years later the townspeople named it Louise's Hill. Today…
Monuments & mounds
Żywiec
In the castle park in Żywiec, next to the Habsburg Palace, a bronze Archduchess Alicja Habsburg sits on a marble bench – a Swede who chose Poland and served in the wartime underground under the code name "Alicja". The life-size sculpture w…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
One evening in 1916 Hugo Steinhaus was strolling through Kraków's Planty park when he suddenly overheard the words "Lebesgue integral". Intrigued, he approached two young men discussing mathematics – and so discovered Stefan Banach, the fu…
Monuments & mounds
Busko-Zdrój
In front of the Busko Municipal Cultural Centre, on a concrete bench shaped like the neck of a guitar, sits a bronze Wojciech Belon with his instrument — the bard of the Ponidzie region and founder of the band Wolna Grupa Bukowina. A phras…
Monuments & mounds
Częstochowa
On a bronze bench on the Avenue of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Aleja NMP) sits a bearded doctor, a book and a stethoscope beside him. This is Dr Władysław Biegański (1857–1917), voted "Częstochowa's Citizen of the Century" by local residents…
Viewpoints
Wisła
Under a hundred-year-old wild cherry tree on the Cieńków ridge, one simple rule applies: anyone who sincerely embraces and kisses their loved one here will be happy in love. This "magic tree" reached the final of Poland's Tree of the Year…
Monuments & mounds
Siewierz
On the market square in Siewierz, two bespectacled gentlemen sit on a bronze bench: the composer Stanisław Hadyna and the poet Zdzisław Pyzik. They wrote the song "Od Siewierza jechał wóz" ("A Cart Was Coming from Siewierz"), performed for…
Monuments & mounds
Łomża
On the Old Market Square in Łomża sits a bronze Hanka Bielicka – wearing, of course, a hat with an enormous brim, her trademark throughout her career. Her signature is on the backrest and the seat beside her is free, so you can sit down ne…
Monuments & mounds
Sulejówek
Near the Milusin villa, the only home Józef Piłsudski ever owned, stands a bronze monument its sculptor called "A History Lesson". It was unveiled on 10 June 2010. The Marshal sits in an armchair with his younger daughter perched on a benc…
Monuments & mounds
Ełk
On one of the benches in Ełk's Copernicus Park sits someone who, as the Polish saying goes, "stopped the Sun and moved the Earth". The figure of Nicolaus Copernicus waits for you to sit down beside him, while stone spheres – the Sun and th…
Monuments & mounds
Pszczyna
On the Market Square in Pszczyna, a few steps from the castle gate, a bronze Princess Daisy sits on a bench – leaving a free seat beside her for anyone who wants a photo. The monument was unveiled on 1 May 2009, and miniature versions of i…
Monuments & mounds
Siedlce
In front of the historic Municipal Public Library building at 5 Piłsudskiego Street in Siedlce, a bronze Stefan Żeromski sits on a bench. The bench monument was unveiled in 2011, when the library reopened after renovation for its 90th anni…
Monuments & mounds
Żary
On the market square in Żary, next to the town hall and in front of the Art Exhibition Hall, a Baroque composer sits on a bronze bench with a violin in his hands. The Georg Philipp Telemann bench was unveiled on 17 April 2010, the town's 7…
Viewpoints
Zwardoń
On the summit of Kikula (845 m), right on the Polish–Slovak border above Zwardoń and the Slovak village of Skalité, stands a bench that makes any adult look like a child: it is 5.3 m long and 3 m high. The Slovaks call it Lavička lásky a r…
Palaces
Warszawa
Łazienki Królewskie (roughly "wah-ZHEN-kee kroo-LEV-skyeh"), or the Royal Baths Park, is Warsaw's most beautiful park and the former summer residence of Poland's last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski. Spread over about 76 hectares (190 a…
Viewpoints
Stary Sącz
Leśne Molo (say "LESH-neh MOH-loh", literally "Forest Pier") is a free treetop walkway on Miejska Góra, a wooded 421-meter hill right above the small town of Stary Sącz in southern Poland. The wooden boardwalk runs for more than 200 meters…
Nature
Żarki
By the road from Żarki to Jaworznik grows a lime tree that locals call "Babka" – "Granny". It is more than 500 years old; only about a third of its trunk is left and the wood is partly rotten, yet the tree is still alive and puts out new s…