Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Churches & monasteries
Boronów
On the grille of a side chapel hangs a crucifix that, people in Boronów say, is slowly closing its eyes – and will shut them completely on the day the world ends. The Church of Our Lady Queen of the Holy Rosary in Boronów is a wooden churc…
Churches & monasteries
Pietrowice Wielkie
On the edge of Pietrowice Wielkie, on the road to Gródczanki, a small wooden church of the Holy Cross sits at the bottom of a ravine. It has drawn pilgrims for more than three centuries, and right beside it a spring rises in a Gothic Reviv…
Churches & monasteries
Wilamowice
On a cemetery hill in Stara Wieś near Wilamowice stands a wooden church whose construction date, 1522, has been confirmed by tree-ring dating. Shingled roofs, covered walkways around the walls and late Gothic portals with "donkey-back" arc…
Landmarks
Gilowice
The wooden Church of St Andrew the Apostle in Gilowice has moved house: it was built in the neighbouring village of Rychwałd, and in the mid-18th century it was taken apart and reassembled in the next village. Inside you will find a stone…
Churches & monasteries
Ustroń
On the northern edge of Ustroń, in the Nierodzim district, a dark, shingle-clad church dedicated to St Anne stands among old trees and gravestones. In summer it is easy to miss, yet it is the oldest church in Ustroń. The present building i…
Churches & monasteries
Koziegłowy
From the outside, St Barbara's Church in Koziegłowy looks modest: brick walls, a shingled roof and a small Baroque turret. Its shape hides an unusual story, though — today's nave was once a hospital for the poor, and the original little ch…
Churches & monasteries
Siewierz
The Church of St Barbara and St Valentine in Siewierz is a small masonry church from 1618, built through the efforts and money of the town's burghers for a hospital that had operated here since 1515. It stands south of the Market Square, i…
Churches & monasteries
Włodowice
Since the early 18th century a Baroque stone church on a hill (395 m above sea level) has towered over Włodowice on the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. Before this masonry church was built, a succession of wooden churches burned and rose again…
Churches & monasteries
Kroczyce
The high altar of the church in Kroczyce is neither carved wood nor marble: it is a grotto modelled on the one at Lourdes, built from blocks of local calcite, a mineral once quarried in the surrounding Jurassic rocks. The twin-towered chur…
Churches & monasteries
Zabrze
In the mining town of Zabrze, building a church of wood was a matter of common sense, not nostalgia. When a church was planned in the late 1920s for more than 5,000 Catholics in the Poremba district, fear of mining subsidence settled it: a…
Churches & monasteries
gmina Pilica
The church above Pilica's market square has royal connections: when it was built, the town belonged to the Pilecki family, and Elżbieta of Pilcza, daughter of Otto and Jadwiga, became the third wife of King Władysław Jagiełło in 1417. Succ…
Churches & monasteries
Poraj
The church in Choroń stands on the ridge of the westernmost hill in the area, which is why its tower can be seen from many points in the northern Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. The road beside it is one of the best viewpoints over the Poraj Re…
Churches & monasteries
Olsztyn
The stones of Olsztyn's church were, until the early 18th century, part of the castle walls on the neighbouring rock. The Baroque Church of St John the Baptist was built in 1722–1729 from material taken from the ruins. In its crypt, behind…
Churches & monasteries
Goczałkowice-Zdrój
For more than two centuries the church in Goczałkowice was in Protestant hands: in 1569 Baron Karl von Promnitz, lord of Pszczyna (Pless), declared his whole estate Lutheran, and an independent Catholic parish was only restored in 1797. To…
Churches & monasteries
Ruda Śląska
A brick basilica rises above the Ruda district, looking as if it had been moved from Rome to Upper Silesia. St Joseph's Church was built in 1902–1904 by Count Franz Xaver von Ballestrem, owner of the local mines and ironworks, who modelled…
Churches & monasteries
Toszek
Between the market square and the castle in Toszek stands a church that, from the mid-18th century onwards, drew pilgrims from all over Upper Silesia and even from the part of Poland then under Russian rule. The reason was Pope Clement XII…
Churches & monasteries
Węgierska Górka
In 1893 builders from Żywiec lengthened the nave of the church in Cięcina and rolled the entire wooden tower westwards on logs. A few years earlier, in 1879, the young Stanisław Wyspiański, later one of Poland's greatest artists, sketched…
Churches & monasteries
Woźniki
The tower of St Catherine's Church – square below, octagonal above, with an onion-shaped cupola – marks the centre of Woźniki, one of the oldest small towns in Upper Silesia. The church is built of rough limestone, and its walls have seen…
Churches & monasteries
Żywiec
The low, plastered church with shingled roofs in Rudza, the oldest part of Żywiec, predates the founding of the town on its present site: Holy Cross Church was built around 1380. Locals call it the church of the "Three Crosses", after the…
Churches & monasteries
Siewierz
For centuries Siewierz belonged to the bishops of Kraków, who also ruled here as dukes of Siewierz – and the Church of St Matthias the Apostle bears their mark at every turn. Above the portal hangs the coat of arms of Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk…
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…
Churches & monasteries
Lelów
Lelów was once a royal town guarding the northern approach to Kraków, and its parish church was founded by King Casimir the Great himself. St Martin's Church is today the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation of Lelów – a Gothic church remodel…
Churches & monasteries
Tarnowskie Góry
In Stare Tarnowice, in a churchyard enclosed by a limestone wall, stands the oldest church in Tarnowskie Góry – a relic of the days before the town existed, when Tarnowice was a knightly village. The old Church of St Martin was built from…
Churches & monasteries
Koziegłowy
The Church of St Mary Magdalene and Corpus Christi at 4 Kościelna Street is the former parish church of Koziegłowy, standing just east of the market square. Its greatest treasure lay hidden under plaster for centuries: in 1972 workers came…