Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Gardens
Zielona Góra
On ul. Botaniczna in Zielona Góra you can see more than a thousand plant species and feed the peacocks in a single walk. The University of Zielona Góra Botanical Garden was recreated in 2007 on part of a pre-war garden, and right next door…
Churches & monasteries
Gościkowo
Paradyż Cistercian Abbey (say "PAH-rah-dish"; officially Gościkowo-Paradyż) is a medieval monastery in western Poland and the largest, best-preserved abbey complex in the Lubuskie region. A Gothic church with a lavish Baroque interior, two…
Palaces
Zielona Góra
Roofless palace ruins with trees showing through empty windows, and the vast park of a former Duchess of Sagan: Zatonie, now part of Zielona Góra, is one of Zielona Góra’s most popular places for a walk. The palace burned down in 1945 and…
Palaces
Żagań
The palace in Żagań was begun by Albrecht von Wallenstein, the Thirty Years' War commander who also brought the astronomer Johannes Kepler to the town. Completed by the Lobkowicz family, the residence blends French and Italian palace featu…
Palaces
gmina Dobiegniew
For half a century the neo-Gothic palace in Mierzęcin served as an orphanage, a state-farm office and a kindergarten, then stood empty and decaying. It was rescued by the Polish company NOVOL, which bought it on 9 July 1998 – today it is a…
Gardens
Łęknica
Muskau Park (Park Mużakowski in Polish, pronounced moo-zhah-KOV-skee) is a vast 19th-century English-style landscape park straddling the Neisse River on the Polish–German border. Of its 728 hectares (about 1,800 acres), 522 lie in Łęknica,…
Churches & monasteries
Żagań
In the monastery library in Żagań, two people standing in opposite corners of the room can talk in a whisper while anyone in the middle hears nothing. This is the work of a so-called whispering vault, one of the curiosities of the former A…
Old towns & squares
Międzyrzecz
Every day at noon the town bugle call sounds from the tower of Międzyrzecz town hall. The pink-and-white building with its neo-Gothic spire stands in the middle of an irregular square, surrounded by townhouses and St Adalbert's Church. It…
Landmarks
Świebodzin
Every day at noon, the town bugle call composed by Edmund Wilgocki sounds from the tower of Świebodzin's town hall. The building stands in the very middle of the market square, and its pale, striped façade with battlements looks like a cas…
Churches & monasteries
Gubin
The ruins of the Gubin parish church (say "GOO-been") are what is left of a monumental Gothic church in the middle of a town that was split by the Polish-German border after 1945. The war-damaged building was never rebuilt, but today it is…
Old towns & squares
Żary
The Market Square in Żary is the centre of the largest town in Polish Lusatia, which according to Statistics Poland (2021) has 36,004 inhabitants. In the middle of the square stands a free-standing town hall whose brick origins go back to…
Old towns & squares
Zielona Góra
The Old Market Square in Zielona Góra (say "zhe-LOH-nah GOO-rah") is the historic heart of the capital of Lubusz Province in western Poland: a pedestrian square around a Gothic town hall with a slightly leaning 54 m tower, framed by colorf…
Churches & monasteries
Rokitno
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Rokitno (pronounced "roh-KEET-noh") is the main Marian shrine of the Zielona Góra-Gorzów diocese and a Baroque basilica built between 1746 and 1762, declared a Polish Historic Monument in November 2024. Its hig…
Fortifications
Kostrzyn nad Odrą
On the Oder, right on the German border, lies a town that no longer exists: Kostrzyn's old town, destroyed in 1945 and never rebuilt, enclosed by the walls of a 16th-century bastion fortress. The surviving street grid, cobbles and house fo…
Technical monuments
Łagów
Anyone driving into Łagów from Żelechów passes under the arches of a brick viaduct, with the railway running high overhead. It is the most striking structure on the Międzyrzecz–Toporów line and, for walkers, one of the best viewpoints in t…
Viewpoints
Żary
Above the entrance to the stone-and-brick tower in Żary's Zielony Las (Green Forest) hangs a German plaque pieced together from seven fragments found around the building. It records that the tower was built in 1864 on the initiative of the…
Museums
Gorzów Wielkopolski
The Lubusz Museum in Gorzów opened on 8 September 1945 as the first museum in the lands that became part of Poland after the Second World War. Since 1947 it has been based in the Schroeder Villa, an early 20th-century industrialist’s resid…
Other
Zielona Góra
In communist-era Poland a rumour went around that during Winobranie in Zielona Góra you were fed for free and even offered wine — which may explain why crowds poured into town. Today Winobranie, also called Zielona Góra Days, is a 9-day ev…
Castles
Łęknica
The New Castle in Bad Muskau stands a few hundred metres across the border, but you can walk to it from the Polish town of Łęknica through the park – it is the centrepiece of Muskau Park (Park Mużakowski), inscribed on the UNESCO World Her…
Castles
Łagów
Łagów Castle (pronounced roughly "WAH-goof") is a 14th-century Gothic stronghold built by the Knights Hospitaller on a narrow strip of land between two lakes in western Poland. Today it is a hotel and restaurant with a 35-metre brick tower…
Castles
gmina Słońsk
From the 15th century Słońsk, 12 km from the German border, was the seat of the Brandenburg branch of the Knights Hospitaller. Their castle was rebuilt in the 17th century as a Baroque palace on Dutch models, housed the order’s museum and…
Castles
Krosno Odrzańskie
The Piast Castle in Krosno Odrzańskie (say "KROSS-no oh-JHAHN-skyeh") is a medieval residence of the Silesian dukes on the Oder River, where Duke Henry the Bearded died on 19 March 1238. After being burned in 1945 it was restored in stages…
Castles
Międzyrzecz
Międzyrzecz Castle (say "myen-DZEH-zhech") is the preserved ruin of a royal brick fortress founded by King Casimir the Great in the 14th century, in a small town in western Poland's Lubuskie region. Ringed by a water-filled moat, with two…
Castles
Żary
A few steps from the market square in Żary stands an ensemble where the Gothic castle of the Biberstein family sits next to the Baroque palace of the Promnitz family. Georg Philipp Telemann, who led the court orchestra here, was married in…