Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Hidden gemCastles
Gniew
The brick quadrangle above the point where the Wierzyca flows into the Vistula is one of the mightiest castles the Teutonic Knights built on the river's left bank. Gniew Castle was built from 1290 over about 40 years, and in the 17th centu…
Hidden gemCastles
Chęciny
The two round towers on a limestone ridge above Chęciny are visible from the S7 expressway long before the exit. Chęciny Castle is a royal stronghold from the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries that resisted capture for more than 250 year…
Hidden gemCastles
Łęczyca
A red-brick quadrangle on an artificial mound above the Bzura River, this is one of Casimir the Great's most important strongholds in central Poland. At Łęczyca Royal Castle King Władysław Jagiełło held war councils before the conflict wit…
Hidden gemCastles
Legnica
Piast Castle in Legnica is one of the oldest stone castles in Poland and the former seat of the Piast dukes who ruled this part of Silesia for five centuries. Two Romanesque towers, a Renaissance gateway and the excavated remains of a 13th…
Hidden gemCastles
Jawor
Few castles in Poland served as a prison for so long: the Piast residence in Jawor fulfilled that role for more than two hundred years, from the time of Frederick the Great until 1956. Beneath its uniform 19th-century façade, however, hide…
Hidden gemCastles
Kwidzyn
Kwidzyn Castle (say "KVEE-dzin") is a 14th-century Gothic stronghold of the Pomesanian cathedral chapter in northern Poland, built by the same brick-Gothic tradition as the Teutonic Knights' famous Malbork Castle. Together with the adjoini…
Hidden gemCastles
Lidzbark Warmiński
The Castle of the Warmian Bishops in Lidzbark Warmiński (say "LEEDZ-bark var-MEEN-skee") is one of the best-preserved Gothic fortified residences in Poland and for more than four centuries the main seat of the prince-bishops of Warmia. The…
Hidden gemCastles
Olsztyn
A white cylindrical tower rising from a limestone crag is one of the best-known silhouettes on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests. The ruins of the castle in Olsztyn near Częstochowa hold the story of a governor starved to death, a dramatic de…
Hidden gemCastles
Żywiec
The Old Castle in Żywiec passed through the hands of the Skrzyński and Komorowski families, Queen Constance, the Wielopolskis and the Habsburgs — and each of them left a mark. The most valuable is the Renaissance arcaded courtyard, modelle…
Hidden gemCastles
Zawiercie
No road led to the upper castle: you climbed a system of walkways and ladders fixed to the rock. The ruins of Bąkowiec Castle stand on a limestone crag called Tygrys ("Tiger") in Skarżyce, a district of Zawiercie, and have been linked with…
Hidden gemCastles
Babice
For more than two centuries the bishops of Kraków imprisoned clergy here: heretics, rebellious friars and priests accused of crimes. Lipowiec Castle stands on a wooded limestone hill (362 m above sea level) between Babice and Wygiełzów, an…
Hidden gemCastles
Rabsztyn
Three Kraków councillors sat in this castle's dungeon until their city paid compensation for the killing of its lord. Rabsztyn Castle, whose name comes from the German Rabenstein, "Raven Rock", stands on a limestone hill (427.5 m above sea…
Hidden gemCastles
Korzkiew
On a rocky spur wrapped by a wide bend of the Korzkiewka stream stands a castle rebuilt almost from scratch by one man. Its core is a 14th-century stone tower, and since 1997 the ruins have belonged to the architect Jerzy Donimirski, who i…
Hidden gemCastles
Otmuchów
Bishop Philipp von Sinzendorf suffered from gout, so he had a staircase rebuilt to let his servants carry him upstairs in a sedan chair — this is how the famous "horse stairs" of Otmuchów Castle came about. It is just one detail of a fortr…
Hidden gemCastles
Przemyśl
Przemyśl Castle (say "PSHEH-mishl"), also called Casimir Castle after King Casimir the Great, crowns Castle Hill above the old town of Przemyśl, a historic border town in southeastern Poland. This is where the story of one of Poland's olde…
Hidden gemCastles
Rydzyna
Rydzyna Castle (say "rih-DZIH-nah"), officially the Royal Castle in Rydzyna, is the largest Baroque castle in the Greater Poland region, set in a small town about 10 km south of Leszno in western Poland. Once home to King Stanisław Leszczy…
Hidden gemCastles
Siewierz
"Beat, steal, kill – but steer clear of Siewierz": this old Polish saying comes from the harsh court that sat in this castle. For almost 350 years the ruins on the Czarna Przemsza river were the capital of an unusual mini-state, the Duchy…
Hidden gemCastles
Strzelce Opolskie
Empty windows, ivy on the walls and a pale tower above the park — this is how the former seat of the dukes of Strzelce, and later of the Colonna and Renard counts, has looked since 21 January 1945. Strzelce Opolskie Castle burned down toge…
Hidden gemCastles
Toszek
Above the entrance to Toszek Castle you can still read the Latin inscription CASPAR COMES COLONNA 1666, the last project of a count who died that same year. The castle on a limestone hill above the town has been a wooden stronghold, a seat…
Hidden gemCastles
Proszówka
The castle is said to take its name from a large griffin once painted on the chapel wall. Gryf, Greiffenstein in German, was for almost four centuries the family seat of the Schaffgotsch dynasty — one of the most powerful families in Siles…
Hidden gemCastles
Świny
Świny near Bolków is one of the oldest strongholds in Lower Silesia and the oldest privately owned castle in present-day Poland. The chronicler Cosmas first mentions it under the year 1108, and for five centuries it was the seat of the Świ…
Hidden gemCastles
Bydlin
For years the ruin on a wooded hill in Bydlin divided scholars: some considered it a castle, others a church from start to finish. The question was settled only by excavations in 1989, which uncovered the foundations of a gate tower and a…
Hidden gemCastles
Dębno
Dębno Castle near Brzesko is a rare case of a medieval magnate's residence that has survived almost unchanged. Built in 1470–1480 for the Crown Chancellor Jakub Dębiński (Jakub of Dębno), it still has its brick body with turrets, Gothic or…
Hidden gemCastles
Głogówek
Głogówek Castle (say "gwo-GOO-vek") is the former seat of the Oppersdorff counts in a small town in Poland's Opole Province, and the place where Ludwig van Beethoven stayed in 1806. He dedicated his Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60 t…