Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Churches & monasteries
Skępe
The sanctuary in Skępe is a late-Gothic Bernardine church and friary with four wings of Baroque cloisters, born of a vision during a plague in 1495. The small statue venerated here, Our Lady Expecting, shows Mary awaiting a child, which is…
Fortifications
Węgierska Górka
In the woods on the slope above Cisiec, a short walk from the centre of Węgierska Górka, stands a moss-covered concrete block with dark gun embrasures. This is "Waligóra", a large bunker of the September 1939 defence line – an artillery ca…
Monuments & mounds
Łódź
Before it reached Łódź, it sailed some 12,000 nautical miles – from Tianjin in China to the port of Gdańsk. The mirror-polished, 3.5-metre WOŚP Heart stands on the square named after the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (Wielka Orkiest…
Nature
Mstów
According to local legend, this limestone rock above the Warta River is a pair of lovers turned to stone by the girl's mother. Skała Miłości, the "Rock of Love" in Mstów, a dozen or so kilometres from Częstochowa, is about 15 m high and is…
Nature
Szczytna
On the south-eastern edge of the Table Mountains plateau, between Batorów and the Radków Rocks, dozens of sandstone outcrops shaped like mushrooms, clubs, towers and gateways stand in spruce forest. The Rock Mushrooms (Skalne Grzyby, Germa…
Nature
Skała
Where road 773 meets the road to Ojców, limestone crags rise from the left side of the Prądnik valley. Seen from the opposite bank of the stream, one of them looks like a walking man – hence its name, Skamieniały Wędrowiec, the Petrified W…
Other
Gdynia
Kościuszko Square (Skwer Kościuszki, roughly "kosh-CHOOSH-ko") is Gdynia's grand promenade, running from the main shopping street, Świętojańska, straight to the sea and the South Pier. This is where the city celebrates, strolls and takes p…
Other
Racibórz
Next to the oldest church in Racibórz lies a small square with a fountain and benches. It is named after Monsignor Stefan Pieczka, for many years parish priest of the church next door – a man locals remember as someone who could talk to an…
Gardens
Chudów
The Silesian Botanical Garden in Mikołów (pronounced roughly "mee-KOH-woof") is one of the largest botanical gardens in Poland, covering about 117 hectares (290 acres) on the southern edge of the Katowice metropolitan area. It occupies a f…
Landscape parks
Sobótka
During two Scandinavian glaciations the solitary Ślęża stood above the ice sheet like an island — geologists call such a peak a nunatak, and the gabbro boulder fields on its slopes are a souvenir of that era. Ślęża Landscape Park, establis…
Technical monuments
Ruciane-Nida
The Guzianka Lock (say "goo-ZHAN-ka") in Ruciane-Nida is a pair of chamber locks linking Lake Bełdany with the small Lake Guzianka Mała – the gateway from the main Great Masurian Lakes waterway to Ruciane-Nida and Lake Nidzkie in northeast…
Nature
Busko-Zdrój
On the edge of Wełecz Forest, a few kilometres from Busko-Zdrój, grows a Scots pine that looks as if it has walked out of the woods on stilts. Its roots lift the trunk about 3 metres off the ground, and several people can stand beneath the…
Landmarks
Wrocław
At the entrance to Stare Jatki from Odrzańska Street stands a group of bronze animals – a goose with an egg, a goat, a pig, a piglet, a duck, a rabbit and a giant rooster – and a plaque in the cobbles reads: "In honour of slaughtered anima…
Old towns & squares
Elbląg
Elbląg Old Town (say "EL-blonk") is one of the most unusual historic centers in Poland: it looks medieval at first glance, yet most of its gabled townhouses are less than forty years old. After the old Hanseatic town was flattened in 1945,…
Old towns & squares
Kazimierz Dolny
Kazimierz Dolny Old Town (say "ka-ZHEE-myesh DOL-nih") is a small Renaissance riverside town on the Vistula, tucked between wooded hills in eastern Poland, and one of the country's favorite weekend escapes. Its square with a wooden well, t…
Old towns & squares
Kraków
Kraków Old Town (Stare Miasto) is the medieval core of Poland's former royal capital: a compact grid of streets, churches and university colleges wrapped in a ring of parkland, centered on one of the largest market squares in Europe. Toget…
Old towns & squares
Lublin
Lublin Old Town (pronounced "LOOB-leen") is one of Poland's most atmospheric historic centers: inside its former walls you'll find more than 100 listed monuments, a medieval street plan and Renaissance town houses with richly painted facad…
Old towns & squares
Sandomierz
Sandomierz Old Town (say "san-DOH-myesh") is one of Poland's loveliest historic centers: a hilltop town above the Vistula River with a sloping Market Square, a red-brick Gothic Town Hall crowned by a Renaissance parapet, a medieval city ga…
Old towns & squares
Toruń
Toruń Old Town (say "TOR-oon-y") is one of the best-preserved medieval town centers in Europe and the main reason travelers stop in this city on the Vistula River. Red-brick Gothic churches, merchants' houses, riverside walls, the great Ol…
Old towns & squares
Warszawa
Warsaw Old Town (Stare Miasto) is the historic heart of Poland's capital: a pastel-colored Market Square with the Mermaid statue, Castle Square with Sigismund's Column, the Royal Castle, a Gothic cathedral and red-brick city walls with the…
Old towns & squares
Zamość
The Old Town of Zamość (say "ZAH-moshch") is a complete Renaissance "ideal city" that has survived almost intact since it was founded in 1580 by Chancellor Jan Zamoyski and designed by the Italian architect Bernardo Morando. Inside the lin…
Zoos
Poznań
Poznań's zoo began as a birthday joke. In 1871 the regulars of a restaurant by the railway station, members of a skittles club, decided to celebrate their president's fiftieth birthday by giving him… animals. From a goat, a sheep, a peacoc…
Nature
gmina Lubsza
The Oder has not always flowed where it does today. The traces of its old bends are oxbow lakes – crescent-shaped ponds on the valley floor, which the managers of Stobrawa Landscape Park count among its most valuable natural sites. On thei…
Technical monuments
Poznań
Stary Browar ("STAH-ri BRO-var," the Old Brewery) in Poznań is a shopping, arts and business center at Półwiejska 42, built inside the red-brick halls of the 19th-century Hugger brewery. Its "50:50" concept, half business and half art, tur…