Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Landmarks
Warszawa
The Marszałkowska Residential District, known as MDM, is the grandest display of Socialist Realism in central Warsaw: monumental apartment blocks with arcades, attics and sculptures of workers lining Marszałkowska Street from Wilcza Street…
Technical monuments
Warszawa
The neo-Renaissance towers at both ends of the bridge look like fortress gates, and for good reason: the tsarist military authorities insisted on them. Poniatowski Bridge, nicknamed Poniatoszczak by Varsovians, links Jerusalem Avenue (Alej…
Old towns & squares
Warszawa
Warsaw's New Town (Nowe Miasto, pronounced "NO-veh MYAH-stoh") is a former independent town founded in the early 15th century just north of the Old Town, and today it is one of the most pleasant corners of the Polish capital's historic cen…
Gardens
Warszawa
Krasiński Garden (Ogród Krasińskich, pronounced "kra-SHEEN-skeekh") is a historic city park in Warsaw's Muranów district, created in 1676 as the Baroque garden of the Krasiński Palace and open to the public since the 1760s. Today it is a c…
Technical monuments
Żyrardów
The 19th-century factory town of Żyrardów (say "zhih-RAR-doof") is a complete industrial settlement built around a linen mill just southwest of Warsaw. Red-brick workers' houses, schools, a hospital, a nursery, a social club, churches and…
Gardens
Warszawa
Skaryszewski Park (Park Skaryszewski im. Ignacego Jana Paderewskiego) is Warsaw's largest and one of its most beautiful city parks, laid out in the English landscape style in the Praga-Południe district. It covers 58 ha, with ponds and cha…
Gardens
Konstancin-Jeziorna
For half a century, from 1900 to 1952, the Wilanów narrow-gauge railway ran from Plac Unii Lubelskiej in Warsaw to the Spa Park in Konstancin. A hydrotherapy centre now stands where the station was, but the English-style park laid out arou…
Monuments & mounds
Warszawa
The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw (Pomnik Bohaterów Getta) is one of Europe's most important Holocaust memorials: a massive stone block more than 10 meters tall, with reliefs by sculptor Nathan Rapoport, honoring the Warsaw Ghett…
Monuments & mounds
Brochów
A tall concrete obelisk stands on the Vistula embankment at the edge of the Kampinos Forest. Here, on 18 September 1939, in the last days of the Battle of the Bzura, Wehrmacht soldiers shot Polish prisoners of war and civilians from the su…
Old towns & squares
Warszawa
Praga-Północ (roughly "PRAH-gah POO-wnots", meaning "Praga North") is the Warsaw district on the east bank of the Vistula where the prewar city still stands. Unlike the rebuilt center, much of Praga survived World War II, so you'll find re…
Old towns & squares
Płock
The Płock pier is a 358 m steel walkway that, instead of running straight out into the Vistula, curves along the bank. According to the city, it is the only structure of its kind in Poland. From the deck you look up at the escarpment with…
Old towns & squares
Węgrów
In the sacristy of the church on Węgrów's market square hangs a metal mirror with a Latin inscription claiming that Master Twardowski, Poland's own Faust, once used it for sorcery, before it was "converted" to the service of God. That lege…
Old towns & squares
Warszawa
Warsaw Old Town (Stare Miasto) is the historic heart of Poland's capital: a pastel-colored Market Square with the Mermaid statue, Castle Square with Sigismund's Column, the Royal Castle, a Gothic cathedral and red-brick city walls with the…
Monuments & mounds
Warszawa
The Warsaw Mermaid (Syrenka, pronounced "sih-REN-kah") on the Old Town Market Square is the city's best-known monument to its own coat of arms: a sword-wielding mermaid with a round shield, standing in the middle of a square of pastel town…
Landmarks
Płock
Cathedral Hill in Płock (Wzgórze Tumskie; say "PWOTSK") is the historic heart of one of Poland's oldest cities, perched on a high bank above the Vistula River about 120 km northwest of Warsaw. Here a Romanesque-Renaissance cathedral holdin…