Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Palaces
Żyrowa
An American millionaire bought it as a wedding present for his daughter, Kaiser Wilhelm II stayed here, and after the war it was used to treat children at risk of tuberculosis. Żyrowa Palace is one of the largest early Baroque residences i…
Landmarks
Grodków
The tower of Grodków town hall survived the fire that destroyed most of the town in 1833, and seven years later a new building was raised around it. Today the late Neoclassical town hall of 1840 stands in the middle of the market square of…
Landmarks
Opole
The Piast Tower in Opole is a Gothic brick castle tower on Ostrówek island – one of the oldest monuments of defensive architecture in Poland and a symbol of the city, whose outline appears in TV broadcasts of the song festival from the nea…
Historic sites
Góra Świętej Anny
Stone terraces cut into a former limestone quarry were meant to hold 7,000 seated and 20,000 standing spectators. The amphitheatre on Góra Świętej Anny was built by the Nazis in the 1930s as a stage for propaganda rallies, with a mausoleum…
Fortifications
Byczyna
Piaskowa (Sand) Tower, also called the South Tower, closes off from the south one of the best-preserved rings of town walls in Poland. Inside, the vault over a former starvation dungeon has survived, and during the 2023–2024 restoration th…
Fortifications
Krapkowice
Every day at noon a bugle call – the town's hejnał – rings out from a stone tower in Krapkowice. The tower, also called the Upper Gate Tower or Prudnik Gate Tower, is the only survivor of the town's four gates and the best-preserved part o…
Museums
Głogówek
At the very bottom of the tower was an unlit dungeon with a chain fixed to the wall – and that is where the Prison Tower in Głogówek got its name. This square brick tower next to the Castle Gate is one of the few surviving parts of the tow…
Fortifications
Byczyna
The German Gate, Byczyna's western gate tower, is the first thing you see when you enter the old town from national road 11. The lower part of the tower is built of rubble stone, the upper part of brick, and its name comes from the fact th…
Fortifications
Niemodlin
In the forest near Niemodlin two brick piers with arched openings stand on their own, as if someone forgot the rest of the building. This is the Niemodlin Gate, also called the Black Gate – one of five gates of the former deer park of the…
Fortifications
Byczyna
According to local historians, it was beneath this gate in 1588 that Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg – a claimant to the Polish throne defeated by Hetman Jan Zamoyski – surrendered. Byczyna's eastern gate tower, known as the Polish Gate, s…
Fortifications
Grodków
Grodków once had four town gates with towers. Two survive, and the Ziębice Gate, on the western side of the former ring of walls, is the one you can still walk through under a Gothic arch. The tower mixes two styles: the lower part is medi…
Historic sites
Łambinowice
On a former military training ground near Łambinowice – Lamsdorf in German – one camp followed another for more than seventy years: for French prisoners in 1870, for Entente soldiers in the First World War, and in the Second World War one…
Churches & monasteries
Głogówek
The Loreto House in Głogówek is a copy of the Holy House (Santa Casa) of Loreto, completed in 1630 at the expense of Count Georg III von Oppersdorff and enclosed within the Franciscan church at 3 Klasztorna Street. It is a "church within a…
Churches & monasteries
Byczyna
At the western end of the village of Biskupice, on the north side of the road, stands a dark, weatherboarded church with a tall timber-frame tower. The name of the carpenter who built it and the names of its founders can still be read on t…
Churches & monasteries
Kluczbork
In a small village seven kilometres from Kluczbork stands a wooden church whose altarpiece is older than the building itself. A Gothic triptych from 1370, almost three metres high, most likely came here from Opole and is regarded as the ol…
Museums
Moszna
On ul. Zamkowa in Moszna, not far from the fairy-tale castle, stand steel giants welded together from car scrap — the largest are 3.5 metres tall and weigh up to 900 kilograms. The Robot Factory (Fabryka Robotów) is a private museum of scr…
Landmarks
Nysa
The Romans inscribed S.P.Q.R. – "the Senate and People of Rome" – on their buildings. In 1701 the burghers of Nysa carved S.P.Q.N., "the Senate and People of Nysa", on their fountain, and there is hardly better proof that the town known as…
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…
Nature
Góra Świętej Anny
St Anne's Mountain (Góra Świętej Anny), known for its sanctuary and Calvary, is also a former volcano. Some 27 million years ago a cone of lava and tuff rose here, and the dark rock on which the monastery stands is what remains of it. Sinc…
Historic sites
Byczyna
The Knights' Stronghold in Byczyna is a wooden fortress in Biskupice, on the shore of the Biskupice reservoir "Brzózki" and surrounded by forest. It was built from larch logs as a re-creation of a medieval stronghold and opened in Septembe…
Lakes
Nysa
Lake Nysa (Jezioro Nyskie, say "yeh-ZHOR-oh NIS-kyeh") is a large reservoir on the Nysa Kłodzka river, right on the western edge of the town of Nysa in southwest Poland. Covering about 20 km², it has sandy beaches on its northern shore, ma…
Lakes
Turawa
Lake Turawa (Jezioro Turawskie, roughly "too-RAHV-skyeh") is the largest body of water in Poland's Opole region: a reservoir of about 21 km² (8 sq miles) on the Mała Panew River, ringed by pine forest, sandy beaches and holiday resorts. Ly…
Museums
Ozimek
JuraPark Krasiejów near Opole is a dinosaur park built around a genuine palaeontological site. Excavations here have yielded thousands of remains of Late Triassic amphibians and reptiles, some 230 million years old, including Silesaurus op…
Churches & monasteries
Opole
Opole Cathedral, officially the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, is the main church of the Opole region and the tallest building in the city: its two neo-Gothic spires rise to about 73 meters. The red-brick Gothic hall church…