Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Other
Olsztyn
Below the castle ruins in Olsztyn, a Jurassic Highland village near Częstochowa, folk artist Jan Wewiór has been carving a moving nativity scene for years, which he calls "Bethlehem under the Thatch". It has more than 800 figures carved fr…
Other
Katowice
Every December the high altar and side aisles of the neo-Romanesque Franciscan basilica in Katowice-Panewniki disappear behind a Bethlehem landscape measuring 18 m high, 32 m wide and 10 m deep. The Panewniki crib is regarded as Europe's l…
Other
Piekary Śląskie
Every Christmas Eve, after Midnight Mass, the Piekary Bethlehem (Piekarskie Betlejem) opens on Rajski Plac (Paradise Square) by the basilica in Piekary Śląskie – an open-air nativity scene that is both living and moving. Figures of Polish…
Technical monuments
Zabrze
Queen Louise Adit (Sztolnia Królowa Luiza, roughly "SHTOL-nyah kroo-LOH-vah loo-EE-zah") in Zabrze is the underground heart of Poland's Coal Mining Museum: more than two centuries of mine workings, giant machines shown in motion and, best…
Technical monuments
Zabrze
Maciej Shaft in Zabrze (say MAH-chyay, ZAH-bzheh) is a preserved early-20th-century mine site in Upper Silesia, Poland's historic coal-mining heartland, and a stop on the region's Industrial Monuments Route. A green steel headframe with a…
Other
Międzybrodzie Żywieckie
The summit of Mount Żar (761 m) in the Beskid Mały range has a power-station reservoir, gliders and paragliders taking off, and, for children, the main event: an all-year toboggan run. A ride on it is the highlight of a family trip to the…
Other
Podzamcze
A ride down a twisting chute with a view of the ruins of Ogrodzieniec, one of the best-known castles of the Polish Jura – that, in short, is the toboggan run in Podzamcze. It is part of Park Ogrodzieniec, a family amusement complex at the…
Hiking & tourist trails
Częstochowa
Eight days in the saddle from Olszanica on the edge of Kraków to Częstochowa, with nights in riding stables and views of the ruined Eagles' Nests castles – that is how the mountain riding committee of PTTK, the Polish Tourist and Sightseei…
Monuments & mounds
Koniaków
In the hamlet of Trzycatek, on the edge of the village of Jaworzynka, you can walk around three countries in a few minutes: Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Their borders have met here since 1 January 1993, and the actual meeting p…
Mountains & peaks
Goleszów
Tuł (621 m) looks like an ordinary wooded hump between Goleszów and Leszna Górna, but it has two remarkable stories. At the end of the Bronze Age it carried one of the largest and highest-lying Lusatian culture settlements in the Polish Ca…
Amusement parks
Żory
A sheriff's office with a cell for outlaws, a post office with a telegraph, gunfights on the main street and Luisa the cow, on whom children can practise milking — the Twinpigs American Amusement Park in Żory was built as a town straight o…
Other
Wisła
Beskidy Culture Week (Tydzień Kultury Beskidzkiej, TKB) is an annual international folklore festival that has turned the Beskidy mountains into one big stage at the turn of July and August since 1964. Ensembles from Poland and around the w…
Landmarks
Częstochowa
On its southern side, the Jasna Góra hill is skirted by a street where the headquarters of the Home Army's commander-in-chief stood in the last months of the Second World War. It was in house no. 21 that General Leopold Okulicki, codename…
Old towns & squares
Katowice
Mariacka Street (say "mar-YATS-ka") is the liveliest pedestrian street in central Katowice, lined with 19th-century townhouses and closed at one end by the soaring neo-Gothic spire of St. Mary's Church. By day it is a relaxed spot for coff…
Nature
Chorzów
A few minutes from the A4 motorway, where Chorzów, Katowice and Ruda Śląska meet, grows a forest that looks as if Upper Silesia's industry passed it by. Uroczysko Buczyna is 65 hectares of old beech woodland with hundreds of mighty trees,…
Museums
Żarki
The "Time Machine on the Jurassic Trail" in Żarki is a living history museum run by historical re-enactors, where almost nothing sits behind glass. Visitors try on armour and medieval clothing, write with a quill like a scribe, handle weap…
Technical monuments
Kalety
On a small wooded island in the lower pond at Kalety-Zielona stands a wooden windmill with sails — the landmark of this forest district of Kalety. A footbridge once led to it and you could even spend the night inside. Today the mill has be…
Mountains & peaks
Rycerka Górna
Wielka Racza (1,236 m) is the highest summit of the Wielka Racza group in the Żywiec-Kysuce Beskids and one of the best viewpoints on the Polish–Slovak border. The forest ends abruptly and gives way to a grassy summit meadow with a viewing…
Churches & monasteries
Częstochowa
The Jasna Góra Tower in Częstochowa (pronounced roughly yahs-nah GOO-rah, chen-stoh-HOH-vah) is the 106.3 m bell tower of Poland's most important pilgrimage shrine, home of the Black Madonna icon. From April to November you can climb it fo…
Viewpoints
Wisła
The Barania Góra observation tower ("ba-RAH-nya GOO-ra") is a 15-meter steel lookout on the summit of the second-highest peak in Poland's Silesian Beskids. From its deck, on a clear day, you can see the High Tatras, Babia Góra and ranges i…
Viewpoints
Krzyżanowice
On the last few kilometres before the Olza joins it, the Oder still flows as it pleases: it undercuts its banks, builds gravel islands and can even cut through its own bends. The best place to see this is the 27-metre steel lookout tower i…
Technical monuments
Poręba
Between factory halls on ul. Fabryczna stands a stone tower with the date 1798 clearly visible below the eaves. It is a remnant of the furnace that started Poręba's industrial history: the tower was used to lift the charge into a blast fur…
Silesian
Wisła
The Vistula Cycle Route (Wiślana Trasa Rowerowa) is meant to link the Beskid Mountains with the Baltic: it starts at Wisła Uzdrowisko railway station and is ultimately to end on Sobieszewo Island in Gdańsk. The planned length is around 1,2…
Waterfalls
Ślemień
In the steep beech-wooded ravine of the Dusica stream, on the slopes of the Łamana Skała range, water spills over a huge boulder to form the largest waterfall in the Little Beskids. It is called Dusiołek, or simply the Dusica waterfall. A…