Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Fortifications
Grudziądz
On the highest point of the Vistula escarpment, 60 metres above the river, the Prussians built a fortress that Napoleon's army never managed to take. Grudziądz Citadel is the heart of the Grudziądz Fortress – a ring of forts around the tow…
Fortifications
Warszawa
The Warsaw Citadel (Cytadela Warszawska, "tsi-ta-DEL-ah") is a 19th-century fortress in the Żoliborz district, built by the Russian Empire to control Warsaw after the failed November Uprising. For decades it was a symbol of tsarist repress…
Fortifications
Poznań
In the 14th century Poznań was one of the most heavily fortified towns in Poland: a brick wall about 1.7 km long and up to 11 metres high, reinforced by around 35 towers spaced every 35–45 metres. Only fragments survive, but they make a go…
Fortifications
Świnoujście
The fort's German name – Engelsburg, the Angel's Castle – is no accident. Its round, stepped brick tower reminded the builders of Rome's Castel Sant'Angelo, the papal fortress on the Tiber. Fort Angel was built in the mid-19th century as a…
Fortifications
Świnoujście
Fort Gerhard (Fort Gerharda) in Świnoujście is one of Europe's best-preserved 19th-century Prussian coastal forts, and a rare "living museum" where history is acted out rather than just displayed. It guards the mouth of the Świna River on…
Fortifications
Siedliska
Fort I "Salis Soglio" in Siedliska lies just a few dozen metres from the Ukrainian border – on a clear day you can see the border posts from its ramparts. It is one of the best-preserved forts of the outer ring of the Przemyśl Fortress, bu…
Fortifications
Toruń
Fort IV in Toruń is the best-preserved and most visitor-friendly fort of the 19th-century Toruń Fortress — a Prussian stronghold of red-brick barracks, vaulted casemates and a dry moat that you can explore on your own by day or with a guid…
Fortifications
Karłów
On top of Ptak Hill (841 m), a ten-minute walk from the Road of a Hundred Bends, stand the remains of a Prussian guardhouse built in 1790. From its rocky platform, Szczeliniec Wielki and the village of Karłów look like a scale model. Fort…
Fortifications
Nysa
Fort Prusy (Fort Prussia) in Nysa (say "NIH-sah") is the star attraction of the Nysa Fortress, a Prussian citadel laid out as a perfect five-pointed star in 1743-1745 on the hills above the Nysa Kłodzka river in southwest Poland. Seen from…
Fortifications
Poznań
Above the gate of Fort VII on Polska Street in Poznań hangs the sign "Konzentrationslager Posen". This is not a military attraction but a place of remembrance: in 1939–1944 the Germans ran a camp here that they themselves called the "camp…
Fortifications
Świnoujście
Fort Zachodni (West Fort) in Świnoujście is a 19th-century Prussian coastal battery at the mouth of the Świna River, now home to the Fortress History Museum. Ringed by a water-filled moat and overgrown with grass, it sits on the western ba…
Fortifications
Gdańsk
Gradowa Hill in Gdańsk (pronounced roughly "grah-DOH-vah") is a 46-meter (151 ft) hill right behind Gdańsk's main train station, and one of the best free viewpoints over the historic Main Town. Its slopes hide a 19th-century brick fortress…
Fortifications
Kołobrzeg
The Stone Redoubt (Kamienny Szaniec) is a relic of the eastern defences of the former Kołobrzeg Fortress, tucked into the dunes right above the beach at the eastern end of Stefan Żeromski Park. Built in 1832–1836 to fight off warships, wit…
Fortifications
Walim
In 1944 the construction sites in the Owl Mountains were allocated 28,000 tonnes of steel and cement – as much as the Third Reich set aside each year for air-raid shelters for its entire civilian population. Riese (German for "giant") was…
Fortifications
Walim
The Włodarz Complex (roughly "VWOH-dahsh") in Poland's Owl Mountains is one of three publicly accessible sections of Project Riese ("Giant"), Nazi Germany's vast and still mysterious underground construction program of 1943–1945. It is the…
Fortifications
gmina Węgorzewo
Mamerki (say "mah-MER-kee") is a former World War II headquarters of the German Army High Command (OKH), hidden in forest beside Lake Mamry in north-eastern Poland, about 8 km from the town of Węgorzewo. Unlike the nearby Wolf's Lair, its…
Fortifications
Byczyna
In 1588, under one of Byczyna's gates, Archduke Maximilian Habsburg is said to have laid down his arms after being defeated by Jan Zamoyski's army in the struggle for the Polish throne. That gate still stands – as does almost the entire ri…
Fortifications
Chełmno
The town walls of Chełmno (say "HELM-no") are among the best-preserved medieval fortifications in Poland: almost 1.7 km (about a mile) of red-brick walls and 23 towers still ring nearly the whole Gothic old town. Together with the old town…
Fortifications
Dobczyce
On the Old Town hill in Dobczyce, right next to the ruins of the royal castle, stretches of medieval sandstone town walls survive. Some sections stand to their full height, others have been reconstructed, and a rebuilt tower now serves as…
Fortifications
Toruń
Toruń's medieval city walls and gates are the best-preserved part of the town's fortifications: a long stretch of red-brick wall with towers and three Gothic gates running along the Vistula River. They form the famous riverside skyline of…
Fortifications
Kętrzyn
Medieval Kętrzyn occupied a hill of only about 4 hectares, enclosed by defensive walls with thirteen towers. Sections of the circuit survive between the Teutonic castle and St George's Basilica, along with a corner tower in which the Wojci…
Fortifications
Nysa
Nysa, the seat of the Bishops of Wrocław, was enclosed for five centuries by a ring of brick walls with four gates and 28 towers. In the 19th century the walls were demolished to link the cramped centre with new districts. Two gate towers…
Fortifications
Paczków
Paczków is known as the Polish Carcassonne, because few towns in the country have kept such a complete ring of medieval walls. An oval of fortifications about 1,200 metres long surrounds the old town with its grid of streets, and of the 24…
Fortifications
Racibórz
Only fragments survive of the walls that for centuries surrounded Racibórz's Old Town – but one of them has become the town's emblem. The Renaissance Prison Tower of about 1574, with its attic and four corner turrets, features in Racibórz'…