Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Mountains & peaks
Brenna
Sheep grazed the meadows of Stary Groń for more than three hundred years – a man named Gawlas set up the first shepherd's hut here as early as the first half of the 17th century, making this ridge the oldest pastoral centre in Brenna. Toda…
Museums
gmina Niegowa
The Old Mill – Museum of Old Crafts (Stary Młyn) in Żarki ("ZHAR-kee") is a hands-on museum set in a nearly century-old electric mill in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, a limestone region of southern Poland known for its ruined castles. Ins…
Lakes
Świętochłowice
In the northern part of Świętochłowice, where the districts of Lipiny and Chropaczów meet, lies a small valley that locals simply call Ajska. Its largest body of water is Ajska Pond, ringed by reeds and by rust-coloured spoil heaps left by…
Lakes
Złoty Potok
Amerykan is the largest pond in Złoty Potok and the easiest starting point for the Wiercica Valley in the Polish Jura. From the water a short walk takes you to the Krasiński manor, and within an hour you reach the springs and limestone roc…
Lakes
Miasteczko Śląskie
Gierzyna is a group of small woodland ponds in Miasteczko Śląskie, protected as an ecological site (użytek ekologiczny) since 2010. Its five shallow pools formed in old sand pits, and today they are a refuge for rare aquatic plants and amp…
Lakes
Siemianowice Śląskie
Rzęsa is the largest pond in Siemianowice Śląskie and the heart of the Bażantarnia nature and recreation area on the edge of town. Water has filled a former sand pit here, and today the pools are ringed by walking and cycling paths, a brin…
Lakes
Złoty Potok
This small pond on the upper Wiercica has two names: a plain one, the Green Pond, and a poetic one, "A Midsummer Night's Dream". According to local tradition the second was coined by the Romantic poet Zygmunt Krasiński, who spent the summe…
Lakes
Tworóg
The Szkarotkowe Ponds near Połomia make a good goal for a quiet walk or bike ride in the forests of Tworóg municipality: a string of woodland ponds covering about 10 ha in total, a shelter, benches and a wooden jetty. There's no boat hire…
Mountains & peaks
Istebna
At 760 m above sea level, the broad Stecówka clearing slopes down towards the Olza valley, and the red Main Beskid Trail runs right across it. Several chapters of Istebna's highland history fit into one view here: a wooden church built in…
Landmarks
Mstów
On a hill outside Mstów stand white stone walls without roofs, with a few barns still roofed among them – from a distance it looks like an abandoned village. This is the old barn quarter on Ściegna hill: a group of about thirty masonry bar…
Landmarks
Żarki
In the eastern part of Żarki, next to one of the largest markets in the region, stands a group of several dozen historic barns built of limestone and brick. They were put up after a fire in 1938 destroyed the earlier timber, thatched build…
Mountains & peaks
Wisła
Seen from the north, Stożek Wielki (978 m) has an almost perfect cone shape, which gave it its name — "stożek" means "cone" in Polish. The Polish-Czech border and the red Main Beskid Trail run over its summit, and just below the top stands…
Nature
Ogrodzieniec
On top of Straszykowa Góra (485 m), white limestone towers rise above the pine canopy, bearing names given by climbers: Felin, Fircyk, Skrzynia, Weselna, Dupinek, Kominowa and Skała pod Słupem. These are the Straszykowe Rocks – one of the…
Fortifications
gmina Niegowa
On top of the Zamkowa limestone rock in Łutowiec (Niegowa municipality) there once stood a small medieval stronghold. Today all that remains is a fragment of wall on the summit of the outcrop and barely visible traces of a rampart and moat…
Fortifications
Żarki
On a lone limestone rock near Suliszowice, at about 400 m above sea level, a 19.5-metre stretch of wall up to 1.8 m thick has survived – the last trace of a small stronghold built to guard the border in the Jura. Nobody even knows for cert…
Technical monuments
Katowice
On the site of the Katowice colliery, closed in 1999, three buildings went up in 2011–2015 that changed the city's image: the new Silesian Museum, the home of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) and the International Congr…
Other
Lelów
Every August Lelów, in Częstochowa County, celebrates two dishes baked all night: Polish ciulim and Jewish cholent. The Ciulim and Cholent Festival has been held since 2003 and recalls the time when Poles and Jews lived side by side in the…
Ski resorts
Szczyrk
Szczyrk Mountain Resort (say "shchirk") is the largest ski area in Szczyrk and one of the biggest in Poland, spread across the slopes of Mały Skrzyczne (1,211 m / 3,973 ft) in the Silesian Beskids. A 10-seat gondola and three six-seat chai…
Landmarks
Goczałkowice-Zdrój
The oldest wooden church in Upper Silesia has its date written in its tree rings: dendrochronological research in 2011 dated St Martin's church in Ćwiklice to 1466. It is one of nearly a hundred monuments on the Wooden Architecture Route o…
Historic sites
Żarki
For centuries Żarki in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland was a Polish-Jewish town. The town's Jewish Heritage Trail leads through six stops — from Koziegłowska Street to the Old Market Square — and shows what remains of that community: a synag…
Viewpoints
Chałupki
Silesianka is a cross-border trail of lookout towers and viewing platforms in the Silesia Euroregion, on the Polish–Czech borderland of Silesia. Today it links 34 sites — according to the project, 11 on the Polish and 23 on the Czech side…
Other
Goczałkowice-Zdrój
Roulade with dumplings and red cabbage is to Silesia what champagne is to Champagne – that is how the organiser itself puts it. The Śląskie Smaki (Silesian Flavours) culinary trail was launched by the Silesian Tourist Organisation (ŚOT) in…
Technical monuments
Zabrze
A UNESCO-listed silver mine, underground adits in Zabrze, brewery museums in Tychy and Żywiec, the Gliwice radio station and workers' estates where people still live. The Industrial Monuments Route of the Silesian Voivodeship (Szlak Zabytk…
Hiking & tourist trails
Piekary Śląskie
Two of the region's long-distance trails, laid out by the local guide and priest Jerzy Pawlik, run through Piekary Śląskie: the red Polish Hussars' Trail and the blue Silesian Insurgents' Trail. Within the town they are joined by shorter r…