Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Landmarks
Golina
Around 1660 a canon from Kalisz took a copy of the Golina image of the Virgin Mary to Lišov in Bohemia – and that copy still hangs there today. It is the best proof that devotion in this small village near Jarocin is older than any survivi…
Landmarks
Zator
The wooden Church of St Andrew in Graboszyce near Zator stands opposite a Renaissance fortified manor built by the same founder, Dziwisz (Dionizy) Brandys. It was built around 1585 in the Silesian-Lesser Poland style, and its oddity is a t…
Landmarks
Wieluń
Beside national road 45, five kilometres from Wieluń, a modern brick church has its larch-wood predecessor standing right next to it. St Andrew's wooden church in Kadłub dates from the early 16th century and belongs to the so-called Wieluń…
Landmarks
Koszęcin
In the mid-18th century two wooden places of worship went up in Cieszowa – a church and a synagogue – and, according to tradition, both were built by the same carpenter. The synagogue is gone, but the wooden Church of St Martin from 1751 s…
Landmarks
Mszana Dolna
In Kasina Wielka, in the Island Beskids between the peaks of Lubogoszcz, Śnieżnica, Ćwilin and Wierzbanowska Góra, there are two churches: a new one of brick and an old wooden one from 1678. The latter, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, is o…
Landmarks
Katowice
The oldest building in Katowice was not built in Katowice. The wooden Church of St Michael the Archangel stood in Syrynia near Wodzisław Śląski for more than four centuries, and in 1938 it was taken apart beam by beam and reassembled on Be…
Landmarks
Dobrzyca
The wooden Church of St Thecla stands on the west side of the market square in Dobrzyca (Rynek 6) and has survived two fires and one relocation: in the 1980s its body was cut apart and rolled onto new foundations. The church of 1778 was re…
Landmarks
Pątnów
From outside it is a modest, weatherboarded little church hidden among trees in its old churchyard. Inside, though, the ceiling is covered with Renaissance paintings from 1520–1531, where alongside religious scenes you will find the Jagiel…
Landmarks
Narew
Three villages in the Narew valley – Trześcianka, Soce and Puchły – lie just a few kilometres apart and together form the Land of Open Shutters (Kraina Otwartych Okiennic), a cultural trail of wooden architecture with carved window frames,…
Landmarks
Toruń
The Leaning Tower of Toruń (Krzywa Wieża, roughly "KSHI-vah VYEH-zhah") is a 14th-century tower in the medieval city walls facing the Vistula River, tilted almost one and a half meters off vertical. Alongside gingerbread and Copernicus, it…
Landmarks
Sopot
The Crooked House in Sopot (Krzywy Domek, say "KSHIH-vih DOH-mek") is a building that looks as if it is melting: wavy walls, warped windows and a roof like a fairy-tale hat. It stands on Sopot's famous pedestrian street, Bohaterów Monte Ca…
Landmarks
Sopot
Dark timber, steep roofs, little towers and carved dragons – the Southern Bathhouses look as if they had sailed onto Sopot beach straight from a Norwegian fjord. This wooden bathing complex from 1907 stands on the sand a few hundred metres…
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…
Landmarks
Lublin
The Lublin Underground Route (Lubelska Trasa Podziemna) is a nearly 300-meter (1,000-foot) tourist trail through old merchants' cellars beneath the Market Square and townhouses of Lublin's Old Town. You descend up to 9–12 m (30–40 ft) belo…
Landmarks
Kraków
A royal city, salt mines, a Holocaust memorial and wooden churches in mountain villages – in Małopolska (Lesser Poland) they all share one thing: a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Małopolska UNESCO Route is a driving route of…
Landmarks
Warszawa
The Marszałkowska Residential District, known as MDM, is the grandest display of Socialist Realism in central Warsaw: monumental apartment blocks with arcades, attics and sculptures of workers lining Marszałkowska Street from Wilcza Street…
Landmarks
Kazimierz Dolny
Mięćmierz ("MYENCH-myesh") is a former rafting and fishing village on the Vistula, now part of Kazimierz Dolny, famous for its thatched cottages and a wooden post mill perched on the riverbank escarpment. Tucked where three ravines meet, a…
Landmarks
Opole
A green, openwork footbridge over the Młynówka is one of the best-known sights in Opole. Locals call it the Green Bridge or the Lovers' Bridge, but its official name – Most Groszowy, the Penny Bridge – recalls the days when crossing it cos…
Landmarks
Wrocław
Tumski Bridge in Wrocław (say "TOOM-skee") is the green steel bridge that carries you across the Oder River onto Ostrów Tumski (Cathedral Island), the oldest part of the city. Known locally as the Lovers' Bridge, it frames the twin spires…
Landmarks
Katowice
Nikiszowiec (say "nee-kee-SHOH-vyets") is a historic coal miners' housing estate in Katowice, southern Poland, and one of the most photogenic places in the whole Upper Silesia region. Built more than a century ago, its nine red-brick block…
Landmarks
Czorsztyn
When water began to fill the Dunajec valley in the 1990s, the old village of Maniowy, part of Kluszkowce and the summer-resort quarter of old Czorsztyn vanished beneath Lake Czorsztyn. Some of their buildings survived – taken apart beam by…
Landmarks
Zabrze
Zandka is a company housing estate in the centre of Zabrze, built in 1903–1922 in the garden-city spirit for workers of the Donnersmarck ironworks. Around 40 multi-family houses of brick and half-timbering, with steep roofs and projecting…
Landmarks
Warszawa
The Palace of Culture and Science (Pałac Kultury i Nauki, often shortened to PKiN, "peh-keen") is Warsaw's most famous landmark: a 237-meter Stalinist skyscraper that towers over the city center. Built in the 1950s as a "gift" from the Sov…
Landmarks
Nysa
A few steps from Nysa's market square, at the start of Wrocławska Street, stands a well regarded as a masterpiece of Baroque wrought ironwork. The Beautiful Well of 1686 has a forged casing more than 5 metres high, crowned by the gilded do…