Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Landscape parks
Pilchowice
Bóbr Valley Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Doliny Bobru, roughly "PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee doh-LEE-nee BOH-broo") protects the winding valley of the Bóbr River between Jelenia Góra and Lwówek Śląski in Lower Silesia, southwestern Pola…
Landscape parks
Góra Świętej Anny
Góra Świętej Anny (St Anne's Mountain) Landscape Park protects 5,051 ha of the Chełm Ridge, the westernmost part of the Silesian Upland, which rises above the flat Opole Plain. It is one of the smaller landscape parks in Poland, yet it hol…
Landscape parks
Pokrzywna
Opawskie Mountains Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Góry Opawskie, roughly "PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee GOO-ry oh-PAHV-skee-eh") is the Polish part of the Eastern Sudetes between the towns of Prudnik and Głuchołazy, right on the Czech bord…
Landscape parks
Turew
This park protects not a forest or a mountain but farmland, or more precisely a network of tree belts between the fields. General Dezydery Chłapowski began planting them almost 200 years ago. The result, between Kościan and Śrem, is an agr…
Landscape parks
Kotowice
The Eagles' Nests Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Orlich Gniazd, OR-leekh GNYAHZ-d) is a Jurassic landscape of limestone rock towers and medieval castle ruins in southern Poland, between Mstów near Częstochowa and the Biała Przemsza vall…
Landscape parks
Pobiedziska
Promno Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Promno; say "PROM-no") is a pocket of lakes, oak and pine woods and glacial hills just east of Poznań, the capital of the Greater Poland region. At around 13 square miles it is small, yet it holds f…
Landscape parks
Murowana Goślina
Puszcza Zielonka Landscape Park (say "POOSH-chah zhyeh-LON-kah") is a large protected forest just northeast of Poznań, one of the biggest cities in western Poland. It covers more than 12,000 hectares of woodland, glacial lakes and quiet fo…
Landscape parks
Sokołowsko
Sudety Wałbrzyskie Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Sudetów Wałbrzyskich, roughly "PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee soo-DEH-tuv vahw-BZHIS-kikh") is a quiet mountain park south of the city of Wałbrzych in Lower Silesia, southwestern Poland. It…
Landscape parks
Elbląg
The Elbląg Upland Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Wysoczyzny Elbląskiej) protects more than 130 km² of beech forest, deep ravines and streams between the city of Elbląg and the Vistula Lagoon in northern Poland. The upland rises steeply…
Gardens
Sosnowiec
In the 1960s miners from the Kazimierz-Juliusz colliery, scouts and local residents of Kazimierz Górniczy gave up their free time to drain marshland here, shape the banks of the ponds and plant trees. The result was the Leśna sports and le…
Gardens
Kalisz
The City Park in Kalisz (pronounced roughly "KAH-leesh") is a leafy riverside park in central Poland whose history goes back to 1798, making it one of the oldest public parks in the country. In the 19th century it was considered Poland's m…
Gardens
Legnica
Legnica City Park (Park Miejski, pronounced "park MYAY-skee") is the oldest and largest park in this Lower Silesian city: about 58 hectares of greenery right next to the Old Town, stretching along the Kaczawa River and the Młynówka mill st…
Gardens
Elbląg
This park was once home to the grandest villa in Elbląg – the residence of Carl Ziese, son-in-law of the industrialist Ferdinand Schichau, where an organ played in the music room, the King of Saxony came to visit and dinner was served for…
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,…
Gardens
Piła
As late as the mid-1970s, the island between two arms of the Gwda river was a marsh that locals called Gardolina. Today it's the Island Park, about 10 hectares of greenery in the very centre of Piła that the town itself calls "the heart of…
Landscape parks
Poznań
Every day at noon a narrow-gauge steam locomotive in Rataje Park puffs out clouds of smoke and sounds its whistle – though it never leaves. It is the party piece of the Środa County Railway open-air museum, set in the heart of Poznań's sec…
Gardens
Tarnowskie Góry
Repty Park (Park w Reptach, roughly "REP-tih") in Tarnowskie Góry is a 19th-century landscape park of about 200 hectares (500 acres), laid out by the aristocratic Henckel von Donnersmarck family on the site of a former deer park. Old beech…
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
Chorzów
Where trees grow today, in 1950 there were spoil heaps, illegal mine shafts and marshland. Silesian Park (Park Śląski) in Chorzów – until 2012 called the Jerzy Ziętek Provincial Park of Culture and Recreation – covers 535 hectares and is o…
Landscape parks
Poznań
In the 1950s a parachute tower more than 30 m high loomed over the Sołacz ponds – and until 1956 the park was even named after Stalin. It is hard to picture today: Sołacz Park is a calm, English-style landscape park in the Bogdanka valley,…
Gardens
Polanica-Zdrój
In Polanica-Zdrój chess is more than a game on a park bench. Since 1963 the spa town has hosted the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial, a tournament that has attracted world champions, and the Spa Park has a corner dedicated to the royal game. The…
Nature
Poznań
Where clay was dug for almost a century to make bricks for a growing Poznań, reeds now reflect in still water and terns circle above the ponds. Szachty – or simply Glinianki, "the clay pits" – are around 40 ponds in the Junikowo Stream val…
Gardens
Wrocław
Szczytnicki Park (roughly "shchit-NEE-tskee") is Wrocław's grand green lung: about 250 acres (100 ha) of old trees, ponds and lawns right next to the UNESCO-listed Centennial Hall. Laid out in 1783, it was one of the first English-style la…
Gardens
Pokój
The historic park in Pokój (pronounced "POH-kooy", meaning "peace") is a former ducal palace garden in the Opole region of southern Poland and one of the most remarkable landscape gardens in Silesia. It is all that remains of Carlsruhe, th…