Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
Namysłów
Every day around midday a fanfare for three trumpets sounds from the tower of Namysłów town hall. Built in 1374–1378, with a 57-metre tower, the town hall stands in the middle of the square of the town where a peace treaty ending a Polish–…
Old towns & squares
Opole
Opole Market Square (Rynek, pronounced "RIH-nek") with its Town Hall is the historic heart of Opole, the capital of the Opole region in southern Poland, and the natural place to start any visit. The square keeps its medieval rectangular pl…
Old towns & squares
Trzebiatów
Trzebiatów Market Square and Town Hall (Trzebiatów is pronounced roughly "tsheh-BYAH-toof") form the heart of a small medieval town in northwestern Poland, about 30 km southwest of the Baltic resort of Kołobrzeg and some 110 km northeast o…
Old towns & squares
Białystok
Kościuszko Market Square (Rynek Kościuszki) is the main square of Białystok (say "BYAH-wis-tok"), the capital of the Podlasie region in northeastern Poland, about 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Warsaw. This long, car-free promenade center…
Old towns & squares
Toruń
The New Town Market Square (Rynek Nowomiejski) is the heart of what was once a second, completely separate Toruń. It was laid out when the New Town received its charter in 1264, and although it lies just a few minutes from the Old Town Mar…
Old towns & squares
Toruń
The Old Town Market Square in Toruń (pronounced roughly "TOR-oon") is the heart of one of Europe's best-preserved medieval towns and the natural first stop on any visit. In the middle stands the brick Gothic Old Town Hall with a 40-meter v…
Old towns & squares
Bielsko-Biała
The Market Square in Bielsko-Biała (roughly "BYEL-skoh BYAH-wah") is the heart of the city's Old Town, a sloping 80 × 60 m square on a hilltop where the medieval town of Bielsko was founded in the early 14th century. Lined with restored 18…
Old towns & squares
Bolesławiec
In the Wedding Hall of Bolesławiec town hall, newlyweds stand beneath a vault that Wendel Roskopf modelled on the royal Vladislav Hall at Prague Castle. That is the best reason to look not only into the ceramic shop windows on Bolesławiec'…
Old towns & squares
Bolków
Bolków's market square is not flat: it slopes towards the town hall, and steps lead up to the tall arcades of the houses on its west side. This layout is rare in Poland and easy to appreciate from any corner. Bolków Castle, also known toda…
Old towns & squares
Cieszyn
Cieszyn Market Square is a rectangular square of around 6,800 m², with the St Florian fountain at its centre and a classicist town hall on its south side. It is lined with arcades and townhouses whose history goes back to the 16th century,…
Old towns & squares
Ciężkowice
Ciężkowice is one of the few small towns in Lesser Poland where wooden houses with arcades have survived around the market square – which is why it features on the Lesser Poland Wooden Architecture Route. In the middle stands a Neoclassica…
Old towns & squares
Darłowo
Above the entrance to Darłowo's town hall hangs a stone tablet that sums up the town's history in a few lines – and ends by saying the town hall was rebuilt in 1725, "and let it be for the last time". The wish came true: the town council s…
Old towns & squares
Gniezno
Gniezno Market Square (Rynek, say "RIH-nek") is the heart of the old town in Gniezno, a small, friendly square lined with pastel townhouses, from which cobbled Tumska Street runs straight up to the cathedral on Lech Hill. Rebuilt after a g…
Old towns & squares
Gołdap
Victory Square (Plac Zwycięstwa) is the former market square of Gołdap – a space so large that before the war it was regarded as the second-largest market square in East Prussia. Today it is hard to recognise the old trading centre: instea…
Old towns & squares
Jelenia Góra
Jelenia Góra's Market Square (Town Hall Square, Plac Ratuszowy; say "YEH-lehn-yah GOO-rah") is the heart of an old Silesian linen-trading town: a rectangular square lined with arcaded houses, with a Baroque-Classical town hall in the middl…
Old towns & squares
Kazimierz Dolny
The Market Square in Kazimierz Dolny is the heart of one of Poland's prettiest small towns: an irregular, cobbled square with a wooden-roofed well in the middle, ornate Renaissance townhouses with arcades, and a parish church looking down…
Old towns & squares
Kłodzko
Kłodzko Market Square (say "KWOTS-ko"), officially Bolesław Chrobry Square, is the heart of the old town in Kłodzko, a historic fortress town in southwestern Poland about 90 km (55 miles) south of Wrocław. The square is famously sloped, li…
Old towns & squares
Koziegłowy
In the middle of the market square in Koziegłowy, low stone walls rise out of the paving like a small ruin. They are the foundations of the old town hall, uncovered by archaeologists and deliberately left on show in the new surface. The re…
Old towns & squares
Krapkowice
In 1806 the house at number 4 on Krapkowice's market square was home to Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon's younger brother, who was then commanding a French corps in Silesia. It is the oldest surviving house on the square and the best starting p…
Old towns & squares
Krościenko nad Dunajcem
The market square in Krościenko nad Dunajcem measures about 120 by 70 metres – larger than the Old Town Market Square in Warsaw. It was laid out when the town was founded in 1348 and still keeps its medieval plan: a town hall in the middle…
Old towns & squares
Lądek-Zdrój
Lądek-Zdrój is often called the oldest spa in what is now Poland, but its market square is older than the resort's fame. The town received its charter in 1282, and around the town hall you still find 17th- and 18th-century houses and a Bar…
Old towns & squares
Lanckorona
The market square in Lanckorona slopes so steeply that it is considered the steepest on the Amber Route, with a gradient of about 9.5%. It is lined with wooden, shingle-roofed houses with deep arcades and small windows, rebuilt after a gre…
Old towns & squares
Łódź
Before Łódź became a city of textile mills and Piotrkowska Street, it was a small farming town gathered around a single square. The Old Market Square (Stary Rynek) is the city's cradle – the first wooden town hall stood here, and in the 19…
Old towns & squares
Lublin
Lublin's Old Town Market Square (Rynek) is the heart of one of the best-preserved historic centers in eastern Poland. Colorful merchant houses frame an irregular square, and in the middle stands the elegant Neoclassical Crown Tribunal, the…