Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Ski resorts
Sienna
Czarna Góra Resort (say "CHAR-nah GOO-rah", meaning "Black Mountain") is a year-round ski resort in the Śnieżnik Massif of Poland's Sudetes. It sits by the village of Sienna, on the slopes of Czarna Góra (1,205 m / 3,953 ft). Open since 19…
Lakes
Zakopane
Czarny Staw pod Rysami, the Black Lake below Rysy, lies 188 metres higher than Morskie Oko, in a rocky cirque enclosed by the Kazalnica wall and the ridge running to Rysy. A short but steep climb leads up from the mountain hut. The water l…
Hiking & tourist trails
Kościelisko
The Czerwone Wierchy ("Red Peaks", roughly "cher-VO-neh VYEH-rkhih") are the most popular ridge walk in the Western Tatras, a chain of four summits linked by a red-marked trail with views reaching the High Tatras. The summits are Ciemniak…
Viewpoints
Klucze
Czubatka is a 382 m hill on the western edge of Klucze village and one of the easiest viewpoints over the Błędów Desert – Poland's largest expanse of loose sand, covering about 33 km². You can drive right up, and from the fenced terrace yo…
Nature
Kadyny
The Bażyński Oak in Kadyny is one of the oldest and thickest trees in Poland – a pedunculate oak whose age dendrochronological research puts at around 716 years. It grows right by the road from Elbląg to Frombork, in a former imperial vill…
Nature
Rudy
Behind the basilica of the former Cistercian abbey in Rudy grows a pedunculate oak that was already a giant in 1752, when the German engraver Johann Elias Ridinger included its outline in a print of the monastery. "Cysters" ("The Cistercia…
Viewpoints
Chechło
From Dąbrówka hill in Chechło you look straight out over Poland's largest expanse of shifting sand. The viewpoint, at 355 m above sea level, faces the northern, treeless part of the Błędów Desert – the part you are not allowed to enter, be…
Technical monuments
Gdynia
Built at the Gdańsk Shipyard, this sail training ship was meant to be the prototype for a series of vessels for Soviet maritime schools — instead it became the successor to the legendary Dar Pomorza, "built through the efforts of Polish yo…
Museums
Gdynia
Dar Pomorza (roughly "dar po-MO-zha," meaning "Gift of Pomerania") is a three-masted full-rigged sailing ship moored at the South Pier in Gdynia, next to Kościuszko Square. Known in Poland as the "White Frigate," she trained generations of…
Historic sites
Borzykowo
In the fields near Borzykowo stand striped border posts and wooden sentry boxes with carved guards – a reconstructed crossing on the line that for more than a century split the Greater Poland region between Prussia and Russia. Drawn after…
Landmarks
Kazimierz Dolny
The former synagogue at ul. Lubelska 4 and the neighbouring Little Market Square with its wooden market stalls are the heart of the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz Dolny, a few steps from the main Market Square. The late Baroque synagogue, bui…
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…
Museums
Mosina
On the shore of Lake Góreckie stands a white palace that now serves nature, though it was built for one of the worst criminals of occupied Greater Poland. Arthur Greiser, the Reich Governor of the Wartheland, built his residence here durin…
Fortifications
Poznań
In the 14th century Poznań was one of the most heavily fortified towns in Poland: a brick wall about 1.7 km long and up to 11 metres high, reinforced by around 35 towers spaced every 35–45 metres. Only fragments survive, but they make a go…
Churches & monasteries
Ląd
From the road along the Warta you first see two openwork towers and a huge dome – the Baroque crown of an abbey that in the 18th century was considered the oldest Cistercian monastery in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Behind this faça…
Churches & monasteries
Owińska
In 1806 Napoleon arrived at the Cistercian convent in Owińska – and, according to legend and literature, an attempt on his life was made right here. Eight kilometres from Poznań's city limits stands a Baroque complex with the twin-towered…
Landmarks
Bolków
A pale tower with four slender corner turrets is the second landmark of the Bolków skyline after the castle. It stands at the junction of Kamiennogórska and Niepodległości streets, a few steps from the market square. This is the former Pro…
Churches & monasteries
Olsztynek
The Gothic church in the centre of Olsztynek burned at least three times, lost its vault in 1914 and was almost completely destroyed at the end of the Second World War. Yet it still stands – one of the oldest buildings in town and, in summ…
Nature
Bagicz
The Bolesław and Warcisław oaks near Bagicz (BAH-geetch) are two of the most famous trees on Poland's Baltic coast – giant pedunculate oaks in the Kołobrzeg Forest, about 15 km (9 miles) southeast of the resort town of Kołobrzeg. Bolesław…
Other
Szczyrk
The Żylica Riverside Promenade (Deptak nad Żylicą) is a walking and cycling path that follows the mountain river through the centre of Szczyrk – from the Town Hall at ul. Beskidzka 4, past St James's Square and the amphitheatre, to the Ska…
Old towns & squares
Karpacz
Walking the promenade in Karpacz takes about five minutes, yet this short stretch of ul. Konstytucji 3 Maja packs in Poland's shortest street, the country's highest town hall and a pavement with the bootprints of Polish Himalayan climbers.…
Other
Krynica-Zdrój
The Krynica-Zdrój promenade (KRIH-nee-tsah ZDROOY) is the elegant main walk of one of Poland's most famous mountain spa towns. It combines the pedestrian Leona Nowotarskiego Avenue with the Dietl Boulevards running along the Kryniczanka st…
Old towns & squares
Radom
In most historic towns life revolves around the market square, but in Radom the heart of the city is a street — the pedestrian promenade on ul. Stefana Żeromskiego, the old road to Lublin. At number 51 there was once Stanisław Wierzbicki's…
Landmarks
Czerna
The Devil's Bridge in Czerna is the ruin of a stone bridge built in the 17th century by the hermits of a Carmelite hermitage over the stream in the Eliaszówka Valley. Resembling a Roman aqueduct, the structure is now a forest-covered ruin…