Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Hidden gemCastles
Międzylesie
Above the Renaissance portal of Międzylesie Castle runs a frieze of sixteen coats of arms of Silesian and Bohemian noble families – a pedigree carved in stone. Behind it stands a building that shows three eras at once: the medieval Black T…
Hidden gemCastles
Niemodlin
"Stained-glass windows" made of coloured foil still hang in the cloisters, and in the courtyard you can see monks' cell frames painted on plywood – souvenirs of the film "Jasminum", which Jan Jakub Kolski shot in the then-ruined castle. Ni…
Hidden gemCastles
Tarnowskie Góry
For decades under communism, the Renaissance castle of the Wrochem family in Tarnowice Stare served as the headquarters of a state farm and decayed so badly that the town struggled for years to find a buyer. In 2000 it was bought by Krysty…
Castles
Grudziądz
On a hill rising some 60 m above the Vistula once stood one of the mightiest Teutonic castles in the Chełmno Land. The Prussians took it apart for its bricks, German soldiers blew up the last surviving tower in 1945 – and the people of Gru…
Castles
Cieszyn
Castle Hill (Góra Zamkowa) is where Cieszyn began. On a steep rise above the Olza River, right on the Czech border, stand the Romanesque Rotunda of St Nicholas and St Wenceslas – the oldest masonry building in Silesia and the image on the…
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…
Castles
Koniaków
Anyone who comes to Koczy Zamek ("Kocsi's Castle") looking for ruins leaves with a panorama instead. This treeless hill near Koniaków, 847 m above sea level, has no castle, and its name hides two stories: a romantic legend about a Hungaria…
Castles
Podzamcze
After dark, the ruins of Ogrodzieniec Castle in Podzamcze turn into the Ogrodzieniec Fortress of Light (Ogrodzieniecka Twierdza Światła). Glowing halberdiers stand at the gates of the courtyard, a carriage with horses races across the oute…
Castles
Toruń
Opposite the Old Town, across the Vistula, stand the brick walls of a royal stronghold that King Władysław Jagiełło built right under the nose of Toruń, then held by the Teutonic Knights. At Dybów Castle in 1454, King Casimir IV Jagiellon…
Castles
Toruń
The ruins of the Teutonic Castle in Toruń are the remains of one of the oldest strongholds of the Teutonic Order in the Chełmno Land, set between the Old and New Towns right by the Vistula River. No foreign army ever captured the castle: i…
Castles
Bochotnica
On a steep, wooded spur above the Bystra valley, about 70 metres above the valley floor, brick-and-stone walls with empty window openings emerge from the trees. Locals call them "Esterka's Castle" – although the legend of a royal mistress…
Castles
Klimontów
A village road in Ossolin drops into a deep gully, with a stone arch spanning it overhead. That is all that remains of one of the grandest residences in the Sandomierz region – the castle of Grand Chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński. The story of…
Castles
Gniew
The Gothic Castles Trail is a driving route of around 640 km linking the brick strongholds of the former Teutonic Order state and of the Warmian and Pomesanian bishoprics. It takes in twelve castles across Pomerania, Warmia and Masuria – f…
Castles
Wenecja
The Wenecja Castle ruins (say "veh-NETS-yah"), known locally as the castle of the Venetian Devil, are the remains of a 14th-century Gothic stronghold on a strip of land between two lakes in Poland's Pałuki region. A grim legend about a mer…
Castles
Prudnik
On Castle Square in Prudnik stands a thick, round stone tower that is older than the town itself. This is Wok's Tower — the only remnant of the medieval castle of Wogendrossel, regarded as the oldest castle tower in Upper Silesia and the o…
Castles
Lubin
A small rise in the centre of Lubin was once home to a castle where Duke Louis I of Legnica lived for a decade. Swedish troops levelled it in 1641 and it was never rebuilt. What survives is the Gothic castle chapel, used as a gallery since…
Castles
Łęknica
The New Castle in Bad Muskau stands a few hundred metres across the border, but you can walk to it from the Polish town of Łęknica through the park – it is the centrepiece of Muskau Park (Park Mużakowski), inscribed on the UNESCO World Her…
Castles
Ujazd
On a hill above the small town of Ujazd in Opole Province stand brick walls that changed with their owners for eight centuries: from the stone tower of the Bishops of Wrocław, through a Renaissance palace, to the seat of the Hohenlohe prin…
Castles
Janowice Wielkie
Bolczów does not sit on a rock – it is built into one. Its medieval builders joined two granite crags at about 561 m above sea level with walls, creating a small courtyard with natural "towers" already in place. The ruins in the Rudawy Jan…
Castles
Jelenia Góra
Chojnik Castle (say "HOY-neek") is a ruined medieval fortress on a rocky, forested summit 627 m above Sobieszów, a district of Jelenia Góra in southwest Poland. It sits inside Karkonosze National Park, part of a cross-border UNESCO biosphe…
Castles
Czerna
Above the entrance to Czerna Castle, on a stone plaque in the portal, the motto of its first owner has been visible for more than 450 years: “Alles mit bedacht” – “everything with forethought”. This Renaissance residence on the Oder, in th…
Castles
Czorsztyn
Czorsztyn Castle (say "chor-shtin") is a romantic medieval ruin perched on Castle Hill, about 50 meters above Czorsztyn Lake in Poland's Pieniny Mountains. For centuries this royal Polish fortress watched the Hungarian border and the Dunaj…
Castles
Stare Drawsko
Drahim Castle (Zamek Drahim) in Stare Drawsko is a 14th-century Gothic stronghold built by the Knights Hospitaller on a narrow strip of land between two lakes in northwestern Poland. Today it is a picturesque ruin with a re-created medieva…
Castles
Szamotuły
Behind the castle in Szamotuły stands a brick tower where, according to tradition, Halszka of Ostroh – a princess and granddaughter of King Sigismund the Old, forced to marry Łukasz III Górka – was held for 14 years. Górka Castle is now a…