Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
Warszawa
On Krakowskie Przedmieście you can walk through four centuries of Polish history in an hour: from St Anne's Church, where Pope John Paul II met young people in 1979, past the University of Warsaw and the Presidential Palace, to a pillar in…
Churches & monasteries
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (pronounced roughly kal-VAR-ya zeb-zhi-DOV-ska) is a 17th-century pilgrimage park in the hills southwest of Kraków: a Bernardine monastery and basilica plus 42 chapels and churches scattered across wooded slopes, laid…
Cities & towns
Kraków
For almost five hundred years Kazimierz was not a district of Kraków but a separate town — with its own market square, town hall and walls, cut off from Kraków by a branch of the Vistula. King Casimir the Great founded it on 27 February 13…
Landmarks
Warszawa
The University of Warsaw Library (BUW, pronounced "boov") in the riverside Powiśle district is one of the city's most striking modern buildings, and its rooftop garden is free, open to everyone and one of the largest roof gardens in Europe…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Into this mound went soil from every First World War battlefield where Poles fought, and since 1981 soil from Second World War battlefields has also rested at its foot — hence its nickname, the "Grave of Graves". Józef Piłsudski Mound, on…
Old towns & squares
Wrocław
Laid out in the 13th century on a flat rise above the Oder, beside a trade route running across Europe from east to west, this square measures roughly 204 by 170 metres. Wrocław's Market Square covers 3.64 hectares, making it one of the la…
Old towns & squares
Łódź
Piotrkowska Street in Łódź (say pyot-ROOF-ska, and the city is woodge) is the main street of one of Poland's largest cities and one of the longest high streets in Europe: a dead-straight 4.2 km avenue lined with the mansions, banks and hot…
Lakes
Żywiec
Beneath the surface of Lake Żywiec lie the remains of Zarzecze, Tresna, Zadziele and Stary Żywiec — villages that disappeared when the Soła river was dammed in the 1960s. The reservoir covers about 10 km², is 6.6 km long and up to 26.8 m d…
Nature
Kraków
In 1917, in the middle of the First World War, the Kraków Municipal Savings Bank bought the woods on the city's western hills and handed them over to the city as a people's park. That is how Wolski Forest came about — 419 hectares of beech…
Churches & monasteries
Poznań
The Poznań Fara (parish church, pronounced FAH-rah), formally the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Stanislaus, is one of the finest Baroque churches in Poland. It stands on Gołębia Street, a two-minute wal…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Dębno Podhalańskie
The wooden church in Dębno (say "DEMB-no") is St. Michael the Archangel's Church, a late-Gothic log church in the Podhale highlands of southern Poland and one of the best-preserved medieval wooden churches anywhere in Europe. Part of the U…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Lublin
Stand in one corner of the sacristy of Lublin Cathedral and whisper towards the wall — and someone in the opposite corner will hear every word. One story says a bishop wanted to eavesdrop on his visitors; another that it allowed priests to…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Białystok
St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Białystok is the city's main Orthodox church and the seat of the Białystok–Gdańsk diocese of the Polish Orthodox Church. Its white classical facade, the silhouette of its dome and bell tower, and its fres…
Hidden gemNature
Ruda Sułowska
The Barycz Valley is the largest landscape park in Lower Silesia and one of Europe's biggest fishpond complexes. Along the slow-moving Barycz River, between Żmigród and Przygodzice, hundreds of ponds, dykes, riverside woods and wet meadows…
Hidden gemLakes
gmina Ełk
Selmęt Wielki is one of the largest lakes in the Ełk Lake District in Masuria, north-eastern Poland: it covers about 1,269 ha and is 11.6 km long and up to 3.5 km wide. The Lega river flows through it, so kayakers cross the lake from north…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Kraków
The Camaldolese Hermitage at Bielany (Polish: Klasztor na Bielanach, roughly "KLAHSH-tor nah byeh-LAH-nakh") is a Baroque monastery on Silver Mountain, rising above the Vistula valley at the edge of Wolski Forest on Kraków's western outski…
Hidden gemNature
Sułoszowa
A limestone column about 25 m high, narrower at the bottom than at the top, stands on a rock terrace 8–12 m above the floor of the Prądnik Valley, right next to Pieskowa Skała Castle. Hercules' Club (Maczuga Herkulesa) is one of the best-k…
Hidden gemMonuments & mounds
Kraków
The dragon was originally meant to lie in the Vistula, partly submerged in the current. The idea was dropped when it became clear that rubbish carried by the river would pile up on the sculpture. So Bronisław Chromy's bronze Wawel Dragon w…
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Łódź
Under the feet of people strolling along Piotrkowska Street lies an open-air gallery of Polish cinema. The Łódź Walk of Fame consists of more than 113 brass stars set into the pavement — from Andrzej Seweryn, who received the first in 1998…
Hidden gemLakes
Ścibórz
A broad expanse of water on the Nysa Kłodzka River, with the Sudetes on the horizon — Lake Otmuchów is an artificial reservoir built in 1928–1933 between Otmuchów and Paczków. It combines flood protection and power generation with fishing,…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Legnica
Legnica Cathedral, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, is the largest Gothic church in Legnica (pronounced "leg-NEE-tsah"), a historic city in Lower Silesia, southwestern Poland. Its twin green spires dominate the old town skyline, and…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Kraków
Mogiła Abbey (say "mo-GHEE-wah") is a Cistercian monastery in Kraków's Nowa Huta district – and the oldest landmark of a neighborhood better known for Stalin-era architecture. Monks have lived here without interruption since 1222. Its basi…
Landscape parks
gmina Łubowo
Lednica Landscape Park protects the countryside around Lake Lednica ("led-NEE-tsa") in western Poland, halfway between Poznań and Gniezno on the Piast Trail. It's where Poland's story begins: on the island of Ostrów Lednicki stood a 10th-c…
Hidden gemLandscape parks
Czajewszczyzna
Suwałki Landscape Park (roughly "soo-VOW-kee") is Poland's oldest landscape park and one of the most striking pieces of scenery in the country's far northeast. Within about 63 km² (24 sq mi) you'll find steep glacial hills, fields scattere…