Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Amusement parks
Podzamcze
Among the beech trees at the foot of the ruined Ogrodzieniec Castle, platforms, walkways and ropes are strung several metres – in places over ten metres – above the ground. AdrenaLinaPark in Podzamcze has been running since 2006 and is one…
Amusement parks
Podzamcze
The Miniature Park in Podzamcze (Ogrodzieniec municipality) lies at the foot of the Ogrodzieniec Castle ruins and shows the entire Trail of the Eagles' Nests at a scale of 1:25 – from Kraków to Częstochowa. The models of the Jurassic castl…
Amusement parks
Podzamcze
The whole Trail of the Eagles' Nests – the chain of castles from Kraków to Częstochowa – fitted into one garden at a scale of 1:25, complete with valleys, canyons and cliffs topped by castles. That is the signature part of Ogrodzieniec Par…
Amusement parks
Zbrosławice
Camels, antelopes, ostriches and meerkats a few kilometres from Tarnowskie Góry: the Adventure and Attractions Park in Wilkowice (Zbrosławice municipality) combines a small zoo, large playgrounds and a place to relax by the ponds. It cover…
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…
Lakes
Czernichów
The lake beside Czernichów's beach was designed by the man who became Poland's first president. Gabriel Narutowicz, a hydraulic engineer, drew up the design for the dam on the Soła river together with Tadeusz Baecker, creating Lake Międzyb…
Mountains & peaks
Brenna
On the ridge of Grabowa, archaeologists have found traces of Middle Palaeolithic early humans, probably of the Mousterian culture. Today, right next to the summit of this mountain (907 m), stands Chata Grabowa — a lodge in highland style,…
Ski resorts
Bytom
In the middle of Upper Silesia, a few steps from a beech forest, skiers glide down a slope created on the site of a former dolomite mine. Sport Dolina (formerly Dolomity Sportowa Dolina) has operated since 1 December 2002 in Bytom's Sucha…
Ski resorts
Wisła
Soszów Ski Area in Wisła (say "SO-shoof" and "VEE-swah") sits in the Jawornik valley on the slopes of Soszów Wielki (886 m / 2,907 ft) in the Silesian Beskids, now branded as Wisła Soszów Ski&Bike Arena. It is one of the most popular ski h…
Museums
gmina Niegowa
The Old Mill – Museum of Old Crafts (Stary Młyn) in Żarki ("ZHAR-kee") is a hands-on museum set in a nearly century-old electric mill in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, a limestone region of southern Poland known for its ruined castles. Ins…
Lakes
Siemianowice Śląskie
Rzęsa is the largest pond in Siemianowice Śląskie and the heart of the Bażantarnia nature and recreation area on the edge of town. Water has filled a former sand pit here, and today the pools are ringed by walking and cycling paths, a brin…
Technical monuments
Zabrze
Queen Louise Adit (Sztolnia Królowa Luiza, roughly "SHTOL-nyah kroo-LOH-vah loo-EE-zah") in Zabrze is the underground heart of Poland's Coal Mining Museum: more than two centuries of mine workings, giant machines shown in motion and, best…
Other
Międzybrodzie Żywieckie
The summit of Mount Żar (761 m) in the Beskid Mały range has a power-station reservoir, gliders and paragliders taking off, and, for children, the main event: an all-year toboggan run. A ride on it is the highlight of a family trip to the…
Other
Podzamcze
A ride down a twisting chute with a view of the ruins of Ogrodzieniec, one of the best-known castles of the Polish Jura – that, in short, is the toboggan run in Podzamcze. It is part of Park Ogrodzieniec, a family amusement complex at the…
Amusement parks
Żory
A sheriff's office with a cell for outlaws, a post office with a telegraph, gunfights on the main street and Luisa the cow, on whom children can practise milking — the Twinpigs American Amusement Park in Żory was built as a town straight o…
Museums
Żarki
The "Time Machine on the Jurassic Trail" in Żarki is a living history museum run by historical re-enactors, where almost nothing sits behind glass. Visitors try on armour and medieval clothing, write with a quill like a scribe, handle weap…
Technical monuments
Rudy
Rudy lies almost exactly halfway along the former 51 km narrow-gauge line from Gliwice to Racibórz – which is why the largest station on the whole line was built here, with workshops, an engine shed and a track triangle for turning steam l…
Amusement parks
Wisła
In Wisła, the town near the source of Poland's longest river, you can walk the river's entire course in a few minutes. Zabytkowy Park Przygód, roughly "Heritage Adventure Park", in Kopczyński Park is a set of 10 miniatures of the best-know…
Zoos
Pszczyna
The European Bison Show Farm in Pszczyna (PSHCHI-nah) lets you get close to Europe's heaviest land mammal in the leafy historic park of a small Silesian town. Its animals belong to the famous Pszczyna line of lowland bison, which helped sa…
Museums
Podzamcze
The Kraków-Częstochowa Upland has its share of spooky tales – of a black dog, of a white lady and of a water demon. In Podzamcze, right next to the ruins of Ogrodzieniec Castle, they have been gathered under one roof. The Castle of Legends…
Technical monuments
Międzybrodzie Bialskie
The Góra Żar reservoir (pronounced roughly "GOO-rah ZHAR") is an artificial lake on top of a mountain in southern Poland's Little Beskids, above the village of Międzybrodzie Bialskie. It is the upper reservoir of the Porąbka-Żar pumped-sto…
Nature
Pszczyna
Two bison from the forests of Pszczyna, the cow Planta and the bull Plebejer, were among the twelve animals from which the whole species was rebuilt after the First World War. The best place to learn their story is Jankowice near Pszczyna,…