Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Hidden gemLandscape parks
Wałbrzych
Książ Castle stands on a rocky spur above the gorge of the Pełcznica River, and it is this mountain-like landscape within the city limits of Wałbrzych that Książ Landscape Park protects. Its 3,155 hectares hold deep ravines, beech woods, t…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Ozimek
The Ozimek Suspension Bridge (Ozimek is pronounced roughly "oh-ZEE-mek") is the oldest surviving all-iron chain suspension bridge in continental Europe. Opened on September 12, 1827 over the Mała Panew River in southern Poland's Opole regi…
Hidden gemLandscape parks
Jurków
White gypsum cliffs, loess gullies, karst ponds and slopes covered in feather grass: in places, the Ponidzie region looks like a piece of steppe dropped into southern Poland. The Nida Landscape Park (Nadnidziański Park Krajobrazowy) protec…
Hidden gemPalaces
Wisła
In the night before Christmas Eve 1927, the Habsburgs' freshly renovated hunting lodge in Wisła, intended as a residence for the President of Poland, burned down in unexplained circumstances. In its place Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz designed a mo…
Hidden gemFortifications
Poznań
Citadel Park (Park Cytadela, "tsi-tah-DEH-lah") in Poznań is the city's largest park — about 100 hectares of green hilltop just north of the center, built on the ruins of Fort Winiary, a huge 19th-century Prussian fortress. It's where loca…
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Warszawa
A monumental 19th-century church, the surviving townhouses of Próżna Street and the 160-metre Cosmopolitan tower all stand around a single square. Grzybowski Square (Plac Grzybowski) is one of the few places in Warsaw where you can clearly…
Hidden gemLandscape parks
Muszyna
Poprad Landscape Park (POH-prahd) is one of the largest protected landscape areas in Poland, covering most of the Beskid Sądecki mountains near the Slovak border. It takes in the forested Radziejowa and Jaworzyna Krynicka ranges, the gorge…
Hidden gemMountains & peaks
Roztoka Ryterska
Radziejowa (rah-jeh-YOH-vah) is the highest peak of the Beskid Sądecki range in southern Poland, at 1,266 m (many maps say 1,262 m), and one of the summits of the Crown of Polish Mountains, a popular peak-bagging list. The forested dome ri…
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Głogówek
From the tower of this town hall a watchman once announced the hours and important news with a trumpet, and in 1625 soldiers passing through the town shot the ball on its tip through in three places. The Renaissance town hall in Głogówek,…
Hidden gemLandscape parks
gmina Lubsza
Almost 80 per cent of the park is forest, mostly pine growing on sandy dunes, while the Oder valley holds riverside woods, oak-hornbeam forest and oxbow lakes covered with water chestnut. Stobrawa Landscape Park is one of the largest lands…
Hidden gemLandscape parks
Szczebrzeszyn
By a spring on the edge of Szczebrzeszyn stands the world's first monument to a beetle, unveiled in 2002 as a nod to Jan Brzechwa's famous Polish tongue-twister about a beetle buzzing in the reeds of Szczebrzeszyn. Around the town stretche…
Hidden gemCastles
Olsztyn
Warmian Chapter Castle in Olsztyn (pronounced roughly "OL-shtin") is a 14th-century Gothic brick fortress and the top sight in the capital of Poland's Warmia and Masuria lake region. Nicolaus Copernicus ran the surrounding estates from her…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Duszniki-Zdrój
It was meant to run the length of the Sudetes, from Zittau to near Opava – about 300 km of mountain road. Only two sections were ever built, and the longer one is the Sudeten Highway (Autostrada Sudecka), today regional road 389 from Polsk…
Hidden gemLandmarks
Ojców
The Kraków Gate (Brama Krakowska) in Ojców (say "OY-tsoof") is a pair of towering limestone pillars that guard the mouth of a side gorge in the Prądnik Valley, the heart of Ojców National Park. Just 25 km north of Kraków, it is one of the…
Hidden gemCoast
Rewa
From the beach in Rewa you can walk straight out to sea: a narrow strip of sand runs about one kilometre into the water, with a different bay on each side. The Kashubians call it Szpërk; visitors simply call it the Rewa Spit. Beyond its ti…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Kraków
A 145-metre steel arch, two suspended decks and bronze acrobats who seem to be balancing above the Vistula – within a few years the Father Bernatek Footbridge has become one of the symbols of modern Kraków. It links Kazimierz with Podgórze…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Klimontów
Grand Chancellor of the Crown Jerzy Ossoliński saw how churches were being built in Rome and wanted one of his own in the small town of Klimontów near Sandomierz. The result is St Joseph's Collegiate Church, with a rare elliptical nave sur…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Kraków
The entire nave vault springs from a single column in the middle of the church and spreads overhead like the crown of a tree. The Church of the Holy Cross, next to the Słowacki Theatre, is one of the purest Gothic buildings in Kraków, and…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Paczków
St. John the Evangelist's Church in Paczków (say “PATCH-koof”) is a Gothic church that was turned into a fortress in the 16th century, and it still looks the part: a brick hall crowned by a white Renaissance parapet with swallowtail merlon…
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Kraków
The Little Market Square (Mały Rynek, say "MAH-wih RIH-nek") in Kraków is a long, cobbled square tucked directly behind St. Mary's Basilica – a calmer sidekick to the vast Main Market Square and one of the oldest trading spots in the city.…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Kłodzko
According to a 17th-century chronicler, in 1286 every village around Kłodzko had to hand over eggs — the whites went into the mortar for building the bridge, while town servants sold the yolks for a heller a spoonful. The Gothic bridge ove…
National parks
Ojców
Ojców National Park is Poland's smallest national park – just 21.46 km² – and one of its most varied. It lies about 16 km north of Kraków and protects the Jurassic Prądnik Valley with its limestone crags, caves, beech woods and two castles…
Hidden gemLandscape parks
Łódź
Łódź is associated with factories and flat plains, yet just beyond its north-eastern edge the land suddenly rises into ravines, beech woods and river springs. Łódź Hills Landscape Park protects the most upland-like scenery in central Polan…
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Łódź
The walls of the courtyard at 3 Piotrkowska Street are covered with a mosaic of hundreds of thousands of hand-cut pieces of mirror arranged in shapes that resemble rosebuds. Rose Passage (Pasaż Róży) is the work of artist Joanna Rajkowska,…