Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Hidden gemCastles
Janowiec
Janowiec Castle (say "yah-NOH-vyets") is a Renaissance magnate residence perched on a cliff above the Vistula River, directly across from the popular little town of Kazimierz Dolny in eastern Poland. Part ruin, part carefully rebuilt museu…
Hidden gemCastles
Stary Wiśnicz
Wiśnicz Castle (say "VEESH-neech") is a Baroque hilltop residence of the powerful Lubomirski family, ringed by star-shaped bastion fortifications, near the town of Nowy Wiśnicz about 50 km southeast of Kraków. Run by the Museum of the Wiśn…
Hidden gemCastles
Ojców
King Casimir the Great is said to have named his new stronghold "Ociec" (an old form of "father") in memory of his father, Władysław the Elbow-high, who according to tradition hid in the nearby caves while fighting for the Kraków throne. T…
Hidden gemCastles
Racibórz
Piast Castle in Racibórz was the seat of the dukes of Racibórz and Opole-Racibórz and is one of the oldest castles in Upper Silesia, standing on the Oder right next to the old town. After a thorough restoration it houses a museum with exhi…
Hidden gemCastles
Ząbkowice Śląskie
In 1467 the citizens of Wrocław besieged the castle at Ząbkowice Śląskie, but their stone cannonballs made no impression on walls almost 3 metres thick. They took the fortress only with the help of the "great gun" — a cannon weighing 80 hu…
Hidden gemCastles
Olsztyn
Warmian Chapter Castle in Olsztyn (pronounced roughly "OL-shtin") is a 14th-century Gothic brick fortress and the top sight in the capital of Poland's Warmia and Masuria lake region. Nicolaus Copernicus ran the surrounding estates from her…
Hidden gemCastles
gmina Pilica
The tower of Smoleń Castle rises so clearly above the beech canopy that it has served as a landmark in this part of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland for centuries. This is Pilcza, the family seat of the Pilecki clan, which produced Elżbieta G…
Hidden gemCastles
Ryn
Ryn Castle (say "rin") is a medieval Teutonic Knights' fortress on a hill between two lakes in the small town of Ryn, right in the middle of Poland's Great Masurian Lakes. After centuries as a seat of local officials and later a Prussian p…
Hidden gemCastles
Wytrzyszczka
You can reach this steep headland above the Dunajec River, surrounded by water on three sides, by ferry across Lake Czchów. Tropsztyn Castle in Wytrzyszczka is almost entirely new: it has been rebuilt since the 1990s on the ruins of a stro…
Hidden gemCastles
Chałupki
Chałupki Castle once guarded a ford on the Oder, and after the Silesian Wars of 1742 a new border separated it from the town it took its name from: the palace stayed in Prussia, while Bohumín remained with the Habsburgs. It still stands ju…
Hidden gemCastles
Czchów
The round tower on the hill above the Dunajec has become the symbol of Czchów, although for centuries it was above all a customs post. The royal castle guarded the trade route to Hungary and collected duties on goods shipped along the rive…
Hidden gemCastles
Dobczyce
The dam of Lake Dobczyce literally leans against the castle hill, so from the walls of this royal fortress you look at medieval stonework and at the waters of a reservoir created by damming the Raba river at the same time. This is where th…
Hidden gemCastles
Nidzica
Nidzica Castle was completed in the spring of 1409, and just a year later, on 12 July 1410, the Polish army took it without a fight on its way to the Battle of Grunwald. This mighty brick fortress of the Teutonic Knights, on a hill above t…
Hidden gemCastles
Ostróda
For six weeks in 1807 this Teutonic Knights' castle was Napoleon's headquarters. From here he ran his empire and signed the decree creating the first battalions of a horse-drawn military train in history. Before that, the fortress on Lake…
Hidden gemCastles
Łupki
On Castle Hill (383 m) above the River Bóbr stand the ruins of a castle that its custodians describe as the oldest stone castle in Silesia. The first masonry building went up here after 1160 on the initiative of Duke Bolesław the Tall, and…
Hidden gemCastles
Opole
Opole once had two castles, and of the second, "upper" one, a single Gothic tower survives, now embedded in school buildings. It was built at the end of the 14th century by Duke Władysław II of Opole – a prince who served as Palatine of Hu…
Hidden gemCastles
Ścinawka Górna
Just over a decade ago, Sarny Castle was a ruin that the state was unable to sell, and even the then Prince Charles took an interest in it. Today this Renaissance and Baroque residence on a bluff above the Włodzica River is one of the most…
Hidden gemCastles
Wałbrzych
For most of the 20th century Old Książ (Stary Książ) was thought to be a sham ruin – a folly invented for the Hochberg family's romantic park. Only archaeological research in the 1990s confirmed that beneath the 18th-century "stage set" li…
Hidden gemCastles
Świecie
The ruins on a gneiss crag above the village of Świecie near Leśna are not the castle on the Vistula of the same name, but one of three strongholds of the old Queis District (Okręg Kwisy) on the border between Silesia and Lusatia. Over the…
Hidden gemCastles
Uniejów
The Archbishops of Gniezno once kept their cathedral's treasury and archive in Uniejów — today hotel guests sleep within the same walls, warmed by geothermal water from beneath the town. Built in 1360–1365 on the Warta River, the castle is…
Hidden gemCastles
Chudów
The ruin at Chudów looks like a romantic relic of war, but much of it is the product of 19th-century fashion: after a fire in 1875 the owner had only part of the walls secured and the rest pulled down to create a "picturesque ruin". Today…
Hidden gemCastles
Iłża
The upper castle at Iłża was built on a plan shaped like a heart – one of very few such cases in Poland. For several centuries it was the stronghold and residence of the Bishops of Kraków, hosting kings Władysław Jagiełło, Sigismund the Ol…
Hidden gemCastles
Kazimierz Dolny
Kazimierz Dolny Castle is a 14th-century royal stronghold in ruins on a hill above the Vistula, together with an even older round watchtower that once guarded a river crossing. Climbing up from the Market Square takes only a short walk, an…
Hidden gemCastles
Kętrzyn
Kętrzyn Castle is a Gothic Teutonic Order stronghold built around 1360–1374, the oldest monument of the former Rastenburg and today home to the Wojciech Kętrzyński Museum and the town library. The three-winged brick building tells the stor…