Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
Lwówek Śląski
The tower of Lwówek's town hall is exactly as tall as its south wall is long, and the whole building follows proportions of 1 to 3 — just like the square it stands on. The town hall is also larger than Wrocław's, even though the town today…
Old towns & squares
Maków Podhalański
On the rim of a fountain sits a bronze woman in folk dress, bent over her embroidery, while water spurts from three stone poppy heads behind her. It sums up what Maków Podhalański is known for: white embroidery and the poppy in its coat of…
Old towns & squares
Niemodlin
The market square in Niemodlin is neither square nor rectangular – it is spindle-shaped, widening in the middle and narrowing at both ends. Its sides are lined with town houses mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries, and a Gothic church a…
Old towns & squares
Nowy Sącz
The Main Market Square in Nowy Sącz (Rynek, roughly "NO-vih SONCH") is the historic heart of this southern Polish city and one of the largest market squares in the country – second only to Kraków's in the Małopolska region. A grand, freshl…
Old towns & squares
Nowy Targ
Nowy Targ Market Square is a 138 × 110 m rectangle – about 1.5 ha – a square built to suit a town founded for trade. It was laid out in 1346, when the town received its charter, and at its centre stands a 19th-century town hall with a cloc…
Old towns & squares
Nysa
Nysa Market Square is a medieval market place measuring about 200 × 100 m and for centuries the heart of the capital of a bishops' duchy. The war destroyed most of its buildings, but some gems survived: the Renaissance Town Weigh House, a…
Old towns & squares
Olkusz
The Market Square in Olkusz (say "OL-koosh") is the heart of Poland's old "Silver Town," a medieval silver and lead mining center about 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Kraków. Since a makeover completed in 2013, the square has been car-free,…
Old towns & squares
Olsztyn
Olsztyn's Old Town Market Square (Rynek Starego Miasta, pronounced roughly "OL-shtin") is the heart of the capital of Warmia and Masuria in northeastern Poland and the natural starting point for exploring the city's compact old town. A red…
Old towns & squares
Olsztyn
High above Olsztyn's market square, on a six-metre pole, balances "W nieskończoność" ("Infinity"), a sculpture by Jerzy Kędziora, while a glass case nearby holds a 1:100 scale model of the castle. The original is visible from the square: t…
Old towns & squares
Opatów
Opatów's Market Square (pronounced roughly "oh-PAH-toof"), officially Obrońców Pokoju Square, is a long, narrow square at the heart of one of the oldest towns in southeastern Poland's Świętokrzyskie region. An arcaded town hall lines the s…
Old towns & squares
Oświęcim
Oświęcim Market Square (Rynek Główny; the town's name is pronounced roughly "osh-VYEN-cheem") is the heart of a medieval Polish town whose German name, Auschwitz, became synonymous with the Holocaust. Most visitors come only for the Memori…
Old towns & squares
gmina Pilica
The trapezoid-shaped square in Pilica keeps the layout laid out when the town was chartered at the end of the 14th century – streets still leave from its corners exactly where the old roads to Kraków, Lelów, Żarnowiec and Sławków began. In…
Old towns & squares
Piwniczna-Zdrój
When fire swept through Piwniczna in 1876, the only thing to survive from the well on the market square was the statue of St Florian, patron saint of firefighters, which fell into the water. Today it stands on the rebuilt cistern in the mi…
Old towns & squares
Pruchnik
Once every house on the market square in Pruchnik had an arcade, so you could walk all the way around without leaving the shelter of a roof. Around 40 wooden buildings still stand around the square and along the lanes that lead off it, mos…
Old towns & squares
Prudnik
Prudnik's rectangular market square was laid out using the "Flemish rope", a medieval unit of measurement – which is why the square covers exactly one morgen (an old land measure). In the middle stands the town hall with a 63-metre tower,…
Old towns & squares
Przemyśl
Przemyśl Market Square (Rynek, say "RIH-nek"; the town is "PSHEH-mishl") is the heart of the old town of Przemyśl in southeastern Poland and one of the most unusual town squares in the country. Instead of a flat plaza, it slopes noticeably…
Old towns & squares
Przyrów
For more than a century and a half Przyrów was officially a village, yet its market square never stopped looking like a town's. Researchers studying small towns stripped of their status by the Tsarist reform of 1869–1870 ranked it second o…
Old towns & squares
Pszczyna
Every day at noon a bugle call rings out over the market square in Pszczyna, but it is not a solemn fanfare: it is based on a cheeky local folk song. The square, stretched from east to west, is one of the largest in southern Poland and kee…
Old towns & squares
Pyzdry
In 1383, during the siege of Pyzdry by the troops of Duke Siemowit IV of Masovia, chroniclers recorded the first use of a cannon on Polish soil. Since January 2024 a sculpture of three medieval gunners with their cannon has commemorated th…
Old towns & squares
Racibórz
Racibórz Market Square (Racibórz: rah-CHEE-boorsh) is the heart of one of the oldest towns in Upper Silesia, the historic industrial and cultural region of southern Poland. It is the natural place to start if you are looking for things to…
Old towns & squares
Rzeszów
The Market Square (Rynek) in Rzeszów (say "ZHEH-shoof") is the heart of the capital of Poland's southeastern Podkarpackie region – a cobbled square lined with pastel townhouses, with an ornate town hall in one corner, a statue of Tadeusz K…
Old towns & squares
Sandomierz
Sandomierz Market Square (Rynek in Sandomierz, pronounced roughly “san-DOH-myesh”) is the sloping heart of one of Poland’s oldest and best-preserved towns. A Gothic town hall crowned with a lacy Renaissance parapet stands in the middle, pa…
Old towns & squares
Siewierz
For almost three and a half centuries this square was the centre of a duchy ruled by the bishops of Kraków. Siewierz Market Square was laid out when the town received its charter in 1276, and it still keeps its medieval plan, with streets…
Old towns & squares
Skała
In the middle of the square stands an unusual monument: a bronze group – a duke, nuns, a mounted retinue – frozen at the moment the town was born. Skała is one of the oldest towns in Lesser Poland, and its market square with radiating stre…