Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Lakes
Wisła
In Wisła Czarne the Biała and Czarna Wisełka, the two streams that form the Vistula, meet, and it is right here that an earth dam holds back their waters. Lake Czerniańskie, also called the Czerniański Reservoir, is a mountain drinking-wat…
Lakes
Rzeczyce
Dzierżno Duże is not a natural lake but a flooded sand pit: in 1964 the waters of the Kłodnica river were let into two quarry pits up to 20 m deep. The result is one of the largest reservoirs in Upper Silesia, about 5.8 km long and coverin…
Nature
Klimkówka
Lake Klimkówka (kleem-KOOF-ka), also called Lake Klimkowskie, is a reservoir on the Ropa River in the Low Beskids, a quiet range of wooded hills in southeastern Poland. Hemmed in by forested slopes and dotted with small coves, it is a desi…
Churches & monasteries
Ojców
The wooden Chapel on the Water ("Na Wodzie"), dedicated to St Joseph the Worker, straddles the Prądnik stream on concrete supports set into both banks, beneath white limestone crags known as the Prałatki. It is one of the most photographed…
Churches & monasteries
Racibórz
The Castle Chapel of St. Thomas Becket in Racibórz (rah-CHEE-boosh) is the Gothic jewel of the town's Piast Castle, often called the "pearl of Silesian Gothic" and the "Silesian Sainte-Chapelle." Built in the late 13th century and dedicate…
Landmarks
Sucha Beskidzka
Above the entrance hangs a painted horse – just like the inn sign in Adam Mickiewicz's ballad "Pani Twardowska". The Rzym Inn (Karczma „Rzym”, literally "Rome") in Sucha Beskidzka is an 18th-century wooden inn closing the eastern side of t…
Mountains & peaks
Zakopane
Kasprowy Wierch (roughly "KAS-pro-vy VEERH", 1,987 m / 6,519 ft) is the most accessible high peak in the Polish Tatra Mountains and one of the most visited summits in Poland. It rises on the Polish–Slovak border above the mountain resort o…
Churches & monasteries
Siedlce
The two brick towers of Siedlce Cathedral are 75 m high and the tallest structure in town, visible from far across the flat landscape of eastern Mazovia. The Neo-Gothic Church of the Immaculate Conception was built in 1906–1912 and became…
Historic sites
Krynki
For decades films were shown here in the "Malwa" cinema, while bricked-up windows hid the old prayer hall. The Caucasian Synagogue in Krynki (the Kaukaski Beit Midrash) is a brick synagogue built around 1850 for Jewish tanners, a few steps…
Churches & monasteries
Mogilno
In the crypt of St John's Church, four bays of vaulting rest on a single stone pillar known as "the abbot" – the oldest Romanesque groin vault of its kind in Poland. The former Benedictine Abbey in Mogilno has stood on a hill above Lake Mo…
Churches & monasteries
Rudy
The coat of arms of Rudy Abbey bore the letters MORS, Latin for "death", but they meant something else: Morimond, the French abbey from which the local Cistercians descended. For over 550 years the monks founded villages, fishponds, brewer…
Churches & monasteries
Kartuzy
Above the main entrance of Kartuzy's collegiate church an angel with a scythe swings back and forth: it is the pendulum of a clock built into the organ gallery, and the whole church is covered by a roof shaped like a coffin lid. Both carry…
Technical monuments
Zakopane
The Kasprowy Wierch cable car is Poland's most famous mountain lift: in about 20 minutes it carries you from Kuźnice, on the edge of Zakopane, to 1,959 m (6,427 ft), just below the summit of Kasprowy Wierch in the Tatra Mountains. Running…
Technical monuments
Chorzów
The Elka Cable Car (Kolej Linowa "Elka") in Chorzów is a gondola-and-chairlift line gliding over Silesian Park, one of Europe's largest urban parks, in the heart of the Katowice metropolitan area. It links Silesian Stadium, the Legendia am…
Monuments & mounds
Warszawa
This 31-metre hill in Czerniaków was piled up from the rubble of destroyed Warsaw, and for years maps simply called it "Rubbish Hill". Today the Warsaw Uprising Mound (Kopiec Powstania Warszawskiego), crowned by a giant Fighting Poland anc…
Churches & monasteries
Przeworsk
The Basilica of the Holy Spirit in Przeworsk (say "PSHEH-vorsk") is a 15th-century Gothic church in southeastern Poland that was run for over four centuries by the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre, an order founded in Jerusalem. Its tr…
Churches & monasteries
Racibórz
The Dominican friary that stood beside Racibórz's market square for almost six centuries is gone; only its church survives. St James's Church, in the north-eastern corner of the square, burned at least four times, yet it kept its medieval…
Churches & monasteries
Korzkiew
On the high altar stands a small Gothic reliquary which, according to its inscription, holds a splinter of the True Cross and a piece of the table from the Last Supper. The Church of the Nativity of St John the Baptist in Korzkiew was buil…
Churches & monasteries
Siemiatycze
On the chancel vault you can still see the Lis (Fox) coat of arms of the Sapieha family, who built this church in the 17th century. The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Siemiatycze is the town's oldest and most valuable monum…
Mountains & peaks
Bogdanówka
A few decades ago the flat, grassy top of Koskowa Góra (866 m) was still ploughed. All that is left of the fields are overgrown heaps of stones, and from the summit you can see almost the whole horizon: from Babia Góra and the Gorce range…
Mountains & peaks
Szczyrk
Set into an altar on the slopes of Kotarz are stones from Jerusalem, the Sahara and Australia, and even fragments of meteorites. Kotarz (974 m) is a wooded peak above Szczyrk and Brenna in the Silesian Beskids, the highest point of the rid…
Mountains & peaks
Bielsko-Biała
In the mid-20th century Europe's longest natural toboggan run – 2,200 metres with 30 bends – wound down the slopes of this mountain. Kozia Góra (683 m), which locals in Bielsko-Biała simply call Stefanka, is a wooded peak within the city l…
Mountains & peaks
Lubomierz
The summit of Kudłoń itself is wooded and has no view, yet it is one of the most rewarding goals in the Gorce Mountains. The slopes of this 1,274 m peak (Gorce National Park gives 1,276 m) hold the range's best-known rock outcrops, led by…
Mountains & peaks
Rzyki
Many hikers "climb Madohora" without knowing that the name was transferred to this peak by mapmakers' mistake. Its proper name is Łamana Skała (929 m) – the second-highest peak of the Little Beskids (Beskid Mały) and the highest in the And…