Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
National parks
Ochotnica Górna
Gorce National Park (Gorczański Park Narodowy, roughly gor-CHAN-skee) protects the heart of the Gorce Mountains, a forested range of the Western Beskids in southern Poland. Its 7,030 hectares (about 17,400 acres) mix old beech, fir and spr…
National parks
Karpacz
Karkonosze National Park (kar-ko-NO-sheh) protects the highest part of the Polish Giant Mountains, from Śnieżka (SHNYESH-kah, 1,603 m), the highest peak of the Sudetes, to glacial cirques, mountain lakes, peat bogs and waterfalls above the…
Churches & monasteries
Poznań
Poznań Cathedral — the Archcathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul on Ostrów Tumski (Cathedral Island) — is the oldest cathedral in Poland and one of the birthplaces of the Polish state. The first Polish bishopric was founded here in…
Landmarks
Kraków
The Cloth Hall in Kraków (Sukiennice, say "soo-kyeh-NEE-tseh") is the long Renaissance market hall standing in the middle of the Main Market Square – one of Europe's largest medieval town squares and the centerpiece of Kraków's UNESCO-list…
National parks
Wigry
Wigry National Park (roughly "VEE-grih") in Poland's far northeast is a mosaic of 42 lakes, forests and peat bogs around Lake Wigry, one of the deepest and most beautiful lakes in the country. Established in 1989, it is known for its Baroq…
National parks
gmina Dobiegniew
Drawa National Park (Drawieński Park Narodowy; "drah-VYEN-skee") protects the heart of the Drawa Forest in northwestern Poland: the wild valleys of the Drawa and Płociczna rivers, around twenty lakes and old beech woods. It is one of the q…
National parks
Krempna
Magura National Park (Magurski Park Narodowy; "mah-GOOR-skee") protects a quiet corner of the Low Beskids (Beskid Niski) in southeastern Poland: gentle forested ridges, streams with small waterfalls, valleys where Lemko villages once stood…
Palaces
Białystok
In the 19th century more than a hundred statues disappeared from the gardens of Branicki Palace — reportedly because the nude figures might corrupt the pupils of the tsarist Institute for Young Ladies of Noble Birth that had moved into the…
National parks
Sromowce Niżne
Pieniny National Park (say "pyeh-NEE-nee") is Poland's oldest national park, founded on June 1, 1932, and one of the most beautiful corners of the Polish Carpathians. On just 23.5 km² it packs dramatic limestone peaks, the Three Crowns (Tr…
Castles
Będzin
In August 1588 a small castle above the Czarna Przemsza river received Chancellor Jan Zamoyski with 400 hussars, envoys of Emperor Rudolf II and the papal legate Ippolito Aldobrandini — the future Pope Clement VIII. They had come to negoti…
Landmarks
Warszawa
Every year on 1 and 2 November, actors, journalists and musicians stand at the gates of Old Powązki with collection tins. The fundraiser started by Jerzy Waldorff in 1975 pays for the repair of chapels, tombstones and sculptures, and in 20…
Nature
Zagnańsk
In 1934 a jury led by the botanist Władysław Szafer named the Bartek Oak "the most magnificent tree in Poland" — and the fame has stuck, even though older trees grow elsewhere in the country. This ancient pedunculate oak in Bartków near Za…
Hiking & tourist trails
Świeradów-Zdrój
The red-blazed trail across the Polish Sudetes passes Śnieżka and Śnieżnik but does not climb to their summits. That is a legacy of communist times, when the border zone was tightly guarded and the waymarks were kept away from the frontier…
Technical monuments
gmina Pasłęk
The Elbląg Canal (Kanał Elbląski, roughly "EL-blong") in northern Poland is one of the strangest waterways you can travel anywhere: on its northern stretch, boats leave the water, ride on rail-mounted cradles and are hauled across grassy h…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Between 1934 and 1937 archaeologists dug right down to the base of Krakus Mound, looking for the grave of the legendary founder of Kraków. They found no grave. What they did find was just as intriguing: the mound has a carefully planned st…
National parks
gmina Słońsk
Warta Mouth National Park (Park Narodowy "Ujście Warty"; roughly "OOSH-cheh VAR-tah") protects the floodplain where the Warta River joins the Oder, right on Poland's border with Germany. It is one of the most important wetland bird sanctua…
Mountains & peaks
gmina Stronie Śląskie
On 2 January 2020 the Austrian Alps — the peaks of Schneeberg and Heukuppe, almost 290 km away — were photographed from the summit of Śnieżnik. At the time it was the longest-distance view ever recorded in Poland. Śnieżnik (1,425 m), the h…
Landmarks
Kraków
The Kraków Barbican (Polish: Barbakan, "BAR-bah-kahn") is a Gothic brick fortress with seven slender turrets, standing in Planty Park just outside St. Florian's Gate. Built at the end of the 15th century as the northernmost outpost of the…
Mountains & peaks
Tarnowskie Góry
The Historic Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry (say "tar-NOV-skyeh GOO-rih") is the only underground tourist route in Poland set inside former silver, lead and zinc mines. You descend about 40 m (130 ft) below ground, walk nearly 2 km of old…
National parks
Kruszewo
Narew National Park (Narwiański Park Narodowy; "nar-VYAN-skee") protects about 50 km (30 miles) of the Narew River valley west of Białystok in northeastern Poland. Here the river does not flow in a single channel: it splits into a maze of…
Fortifications
Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki
Modlin Fortress (MOD-leen) in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki is one of the largest and best-preserved fortresses in Poland, set where the Vistula, Narew and Wkra rivers meet, about 30 km (19 miles) northwest of Warsaw. Ordered by Napoleon, enlarged…
Churches & monasteries
Wrocław
Take a close look at the south wall of Wrocław Cathedral and you will see a distinct step in the masonry. It is the mark of a medieval mistake: when the new Gothic nave was built in the 14th century, its axis ended up a dozen or so centime…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
The lower part of the façade of St Andrew's Church has no windows — only narrow arrow slits. They are not decoration: according to the chronicler Jan Długosz, in 1241, during the Mongol invasion, the people of Okół, the settlement below Wa…
Churches & monasteries
Kruszyniany
From a distance it looks like one of the two-towered wooden churches typical of the Podlasie region. Only up close do you notice the crescents on the cupolas and the dark green of the walls — the colour of Islam. Kruszyniany Mosque is the…