Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Churches & monasteries
Reszel
Above the rooftops of Reszel, a few steps from the castle of the Prince-Bishops of Warmia, rises the brick tower of the parish church – 52 metres high and eight storeys tall. The Church of Saints Peter and Paul was almost destroyed by fire…
Nature
Olsztyn
From the High Gate in Olsztyn, a red-marked trail leads straight into a forest where it is easy to forget you are still in a city. Olsztyn City Forest covers 1,415.87 ha, entirely within the city limits, and Olsztyn describes it as the lar…
Monuments & mounds
Ełk
On one of the benches in Ełk's Copernicus Park sits someone who, as the Polish saying goes, "stopped the Sun and moved the Earth". The figure of Nicolaus Copernicus waits for you to sit down beside him, while stone spheres – the Sun and th…
Landmarks
Kętrzyn
The white neo-Gothic villa with octagonal turrets on Mickiewicza Street in Kętrzyn is the former seat of the Masonic lodge "Drei Thore des Tempels" ("Three Gates of the Temple"). Built in 1860–1864 on the site of the old town moat, it is o…
Fortifications
gmina Węgorzewo
Mamerki (say "mah-MER-kee") is a former World War II headquarters of the German Army High Command (OKH), hidden in forest beside Lake Mamry in north-eastern Poland, about 8 km from the town of Węgorzewo. Unlike the nearby Wolf's Lair, its…
Technical monuments
Giżycko
The swing bridge in Giżycko (say "gee-ZHITS-ko") is a working piece of 19th-century engineering in the center of this lakeside town in north-eastern Poland. Built in 1898 over the Łuczański Canal, its roughly 100-ton steel span still turns…
Fortifications
Kętrzyn
Medieval Kętrzyn occupied a hill of only about 4 hectares, enclosed by defensive walls with thirteen towers. Sections of the circuit survive between the Teutonic castle and St George's Basilica, along with a corner tower in which the Wojci…
Museums
Elbląg
The Archaeological and Historical Museum in Elbląg (say "EL-blonk") is the city's main museum and one of the most rewarding archaeology museums in northern Poland. Housed in two historic buildings on the riverside grounds of the former Teu…
Museums
Ruciane-Nida
The Masurians used to say that the meadow above Lake Nidzkie "prała" – that it smoked with morning mist – and that word gave the Pranie forester's lodge its name. From 1950 to 1953 Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński came here, and in this house…
Museums
Frombork
The Nicolaus Copernicus Museum in Frombork is a regional museum, founded in 1948, devoted to the astronomer who lived in this small town on the Vistula Lagoon for nearly three decades. It is not a single building but a group of sites: the…
Museums
Piecki
The former home of a collector in Piecki holds Poland's richest privately assembled collection of clay figures by Władysława Prucnal of Medynia Głogowska. Many of the scenes were designed by the founder herself, Walentyna Dermacka née Sapi…
Museums
Olsztyn
The Olsztyn Planetarium and Astronomical Observatory is one of the best family-friendly things to do in Olsztyn, the city where Nicolaus Copernicus once lived and worked. Opened in 1973, the planetarium's dome is a local landmark, but the…
Palaces
Kadyny
Kadyny Palace (Kadyny is pronounced roughly "ka-DIH-nih"; German: Cadinen) is a Baroque manor house from 1688 on the shore of the Vistula Lagoon in northern Poland, which in 1898 passed to the German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II and became hi…
Palaces
Morąg
Dohna Palace in Morąg (MOH-rong, the "ą" is a nasal vowel) is a Renaissance and baroque residence of the Dohna noble family, built in the 16th century, and since 2025 it has housed the Museum of Upper Prussia. The palace stands in the town…
Palaces
Sorkwity
From a distance Sorkwity Palace looks like a Teutonic Knights' fortress: red brick, battlements, turrets and a tall octagonal tower above the water. In fact it is a mid-19th-century residence, built for the Prussian von Mirbach family in t…
Palaces
gmina Węgorzewo
On a neck of land between lakes Dargin and Mamry stands the palace that for more than four centuries was the family seat of the Lehndorffs. Its last owner, Heinrich von Lehndorff, was one of the conspirators of the 20 July 1944 plot agains…
Landscape parks
Elbląg
The Elbląg Upland Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Wysoczyzny Elbląskiej) protects more than 130 km² of beech forest, deep ravines and streams between the city of Elbląg and the Vistula Lagoon in northern Poland. The upland rises steeply…
Gardens
Elbląg
This park was once home to the grandest villa in Elbląg – the residence of Carl Ziese, son-in-law of the industrialist Ferdinand Schichau, where an organ played in the music room, the King of Saxony came to visit and dinner was served for…
Landmarks
Banie Mazurskie
In the woods near the village of Rapa, between Banie Mazurskie and Gołdap, stands a stone pyramid 15.9 m high. It is the tomb of the Prussian barons von Fahrenheid, and the bodies laid inside became naturally mummified. So many legends hav…
Technical monuments
Kąty
The Kąty inclined plane is one of five on the Elbląg Canal where boats, instead of using locks, travel on rails – riding on cradle cars over a grassy ridge. The track at Kąty is 450 m long, and boats climb or descend around 18 m here. The…
Technical monuments
Oleśnica
The Oleśnica incline (oh-leh-SHNEE-tsah) is one of five "ship railways" on the Elbląg Canal in northern Poland, where boats cross a hill on rail carriages and seem to sail across a meadow. The drop here is about 24 m, the largest of the fi…
Historic sites
Grunwald
The Grunwald Battlefield (say "GROON-vahld") in northern Poland's Warmia-Masuria region is where, on July 15, 1410, the combined armies of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania crushed the Teutonic Knights in one of the la…
Monuments & mounds
Frombork
Copernicus with a sprig of lily of the valley in his hand, six metres tall and distinctly unconventional: Mieczysław Welter's monument, unveiled in 1973, divided opinion from the start. Critics compared it to a block topped with a small he…
Coast
Frombork
Frombork harbour is at once a fishing, yacht and passenger harbour, and the cathedral helps with navigation: a red light in a tower window on Cathedral Hill serves as the rear leading mark. From the quay you therefore see the same towers t…