Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
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Białowieża
The Białowieski Express looks like a little train, but it runs on tarmac: a road-going locomotive pulling a covered carriage that takes up to 30 people on a tour of Białowieża village and the edge of the primeval forest. The highlight is t…
Historic sites
Bohoniki
The Muslim cemetery (mizar) in Bohoniki (bo-ho-NEE-kee) is the largest surviving mizar in Poland. It dates from the 18th century, covers about 2 hectares, and was declared a Polish Historic Monument in 2012. It lies in a pine forest in the…
Historic sites
Goniądz
On the southern edge of Goniądz, by the road to Downary, stone matzevot (Jewish gravestones) lie in the grass among young trees. This is the kirkut – the only place in town where you can still see a trace of the community that in the 19th…
Churches & monasteries
Siemiatycze
On Zaszkolna Street in Siemiatycze stands a massive white building with a tall hipped roof — the former synagogue that Princess Anna Jabłonowska funded for the town's Jews as compensation for the cemetery they lost when the town was rebuil…
Landmarks
Supraśl
On ul. Konarskiego in Supraśl, right next to the monastery complex, stands a wooden, shingle-roofed house that locals know by three names: the Gardener's House (Dom Ogrodnika), the Old Post Office (Stara Poczta) and the Old Inn (Stara Karc…
Churches & monasteries
Narew
Every year on 2 August, the feast of the Prophet Elijah, Orthodox priests walk around the whole village with the residents, blessing farmyards and houses with holy water – a procession that was banned under communism. At the heart of this…
Monuments & mounds
Sokółka
At the source of the Łosośna river, in the village of Malawicze Górne near Sokółka, lies a boulder crowned with an Islamic crescent. It was funded by Arsłan Mucha to commemorate the Tatar Mucha family, for whom – as the carved inscription…
Viewpoints
Czajewszczyzna
This perfectly conical hill rising above the lakes of the Suwałki region looks like a volcano, which is why visitors nicknamed it the Fujiyama of Suwałki. Góra Cisowa is 256 metres above sea level and the symbol of Suwałki Landscape Park,…
Castles
Drohiczyn
For centuries this hill above the River Bug carried a stronghold fought over by Ruthenian, Lithuanian and Masovian princes. Not a single wall of the castle survives, but Castle Hill in Drohiczyn, the historic capital of Podlasie, is today…
Churches & monasteries
Nurzec-Stacja
Holy Mount Grabarka (say "grah-BAR-kah") is the most important Eastern Orthodox pilgrimage site in Poland, a wooded hill near the town of Siemiatycze in the Podlasie region of northeastern Poland. Around its church stand thousands of woode…
Lakes
Czajewszczyzna
Lake Hańcza (roughly "HAHN-chah") is the deepest lake in Poland, plunging to about 108.5 m, set among glacial hills in Suwałki Landscape Park in the far northeast of the country, about 20 km northwest of Suwałki. With crystal-clear water,…
Lakes
Wigry
Lake Wigry (say "VEE-grih") is the largest lake in the Suwałki region of northeastern Poland and the heart of Wigry National Park, near the Lithuanian border. Long, winding and dotted with bays, peninsulas and islands, it is crowned by the…
Churches & monasteries
Goniądz
On a grassy hill behind St Agnes' Church stands a white chapel with a red roof, a tall wooden cross beside it. This is St Florian's Chapel, one of Goniądz's listed monuments. A short climb leads up to it, and the reward is an open view ove…
Churches & monasteries
Białystok
Białystok Cathedral (pronounced "bee-AH-wih-stok"), formally the Archcathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the main Catholic church of northeastern Poland and the most recognizable building in Białystok. Local…
Churches & monasteries
Łomża
Łomża Cathedral is a textbook example of Masovian Gothic – with a few surprises. The side aisles hide crystal vaults, rare in this part of Poland; the aisles hold Renaissance tombs from the workshop of Santi Gucci; and set into the wall of…
Other
Tykocin
Kiermusy takes its name from a miller: in 1573 a townsman called Marys Kiermus took over a mill near Tykocin, and for years the settlement was known as Kiermus's Mill. Today a private complex in Old Polish style stands here on the Narew Ri…
Nature
Sokoły
Between Waniewo and Śliwno the Narew does not flow in a single channel – it splits into a maze of branches, oxbows and reed beds. A wooden boardwalk cuts straight across this marshy valley, and you cross the open water yourself on floating…
Churches & monasteries
Wigry
Wigry Monastery is a former Camaldolese hermitage on a peninsula in Lake Wigry, a short drive from Suwałki in northeastern Poland. Its white late-Baroque church towers, row of little hermit houses and lakeside setting make it the best-know…
Churches & monasteries
Sokółka
The Collegiate Church of St. Anthony in Sokółka (so-KOOL-ka), also known as the Shrine of the Eucharistic Miracle, is a neoclassical church with two towers and a gate-style bell tower. Pilgrims have come here from all over Poland since 200…
Churches & monasteries
Bielsk Podlaski
Two white towers with Baroque cupolas on ulica Mickiewicza are one of the most distinctive sights in Bielsk Podlaski. Few churches in Poland have changed roles so often: it has been a Carmelite church, a tsarist Orthodox cathedral, a Germa…
Churches & monasteries
Goniądz
The white church with its tall tower in the centre of Goniądz is the latest of the churches that have stood here since the Middle Ages and a reminder of the turbulent history of this small town on the Biebrza river. It was built in 1922–19…
Churches & monasteries
Krynki
The two slender towers of St Anne's Church can be seen from afar above Krynki, a small town near the Belarusian border. The brick neo-Gothic church was built in 1907–1912, but the parish has five centuries of history behind it – it goes ba…
Churches & monasteries
Zabłudów
The white Neoclassical church in Zabłudów, with its two towers and columned portico, took 35 years to build, from 1805 to 1840. It exists because the Prussian authorities had its predecessor pulled down in 1800, leaving Catholics to worshi…
Churches & monasteries
Jedwabne
Two white towers with dark cupolas rise above the flat country between Łomża and the Biebrza river and mark the centre of Jedwabne. St James the Apostle Church was built in 1926–1935, as the small town was recovering from the ruins of the…