Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Churches & monasteries
Tykocin
Two towers joined to the nave by semicircular arcades, pale yellow render and a red roof: this is the skyline anyone who has seen Tykocin from the Narew river will recognise. The late Baroque Holy Trinity Church closes the eastern side of…
Churches & monasteries
Drohiczyn
The white Baroque church on Plac Kościuszki in Drohiczyn is the fifth Franciscan church to stand on this spot. Its predecessors were lost to fire and war, but this one survived the partitions, the conversion of its friary into a prison and…
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,…
Monuments & mounds
Łomża
On the Old Market Square in Łomża sits a bronze Hanka Bielicka – wearing, of course, a hat with an enormous brim, her trademark throughout her career. Her signature is on the backrest and the seat beside her is free, so you can sit down ne…
Historic sites
Jedwabne
On the edge of Jedwabne, on ul. Krasickiego, stone blocks mark out a rectangle on the grass. It is the outline of the barn where the town's Jewish residents and Jews from nearby were burned alive on 10 July 1941. The 2001 memorial and the…
Historic sites
Kruszyniany
Not far from the green wooden mosque, in a pine grove on the edge of Kruszyniany, lies one of only a handful of working Muslim cemeteries in Poland. The mizar of the Polish Tatars is more than three hundred years old and still receives bur…
Museums
Hajnówka
Hajnówka is one of the centres of Poland's Belarusian minority, and its museum came into being in an unusual way: inside a former sawmill hall, built by local people with money collected among Belarusians on several continents. Constructio…
Museums
Supraśl
The Museum of Icons in Supraśl, a branch of the Podlasie Museum in Białystok, occupies the former Archimandrites' Palace within an Orthodox monastery with more than five centuries of history. The permanent exhibition "The Icon. Image and W…
Technical monuments
Hajnówka
In Hajnówka, on the edge of the Białowieża Forest, you can do more than look at an old smithy – you can swing a hammer at red-hot iron yourself. The private Museum of Blacksmithing and Locksmithing at ul. Lipowa 1 is run by Stanisław Mierz…
Museums
Suwałki
The Suwałki District Museum (Muzeum Okręgowe w Suwałkach; say "soo-VOW-kee") is the main museum of the Suwałki region in far northeastern Poland, housed in a handsome early-20th-century building in the town center. It holds Poland's larges…
Museums
Białystok
The Sybir Memorial Museum in Białystok (pronounced "bee-AH-wih-stok") is one of Poland's most powerful modern history museums. It tells the story of Poles and other citizens of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who were exiled, impris…
Museums
Drozdowo
In this manor house above the Narew river, nine-year-old Witold Lutosławski wrote his first piano piece, and Roman Dmowski, one of the founders of modern Poland, spent the last months of his life and died on 2 January 1939. Today the forme…
Museums
Ciechanowiec
Painted Easter eggs from around the world, steam traction engines, a windmill and dozens of wooden cottages – the Rev. Krzysztof Kluk Museum of Agriculture in Ciechanowiec is one of only two agricultural museums in Poland (the other is in…
Historic sites
Wizna
The Defense of Wizna at Góra Strękowa (VEEZ-na; goo-RA stren-KO-va) is an open-air war memorial where, on September 7-10, 1939, Polish soldiers under Captain Władysław Raginis held the Narew River line against General Heinz Guderian's XIX…
National parks
Białowieża
The Strict Protection Area of Białowieża National Park is the most valuable part of the Białowieża Forest – a natural forest that nobody planted and where no forestry has been practised for over a century. More than 6,059 ha are under stri…
Other
Białystok
For almost sixty years Białystok's symphony musicians played without a home of their own – in a theatre, in a small palace, in an old hall on Podleśna Street. Today they have one of the most modern music buildings in this part of Europe: a…
Palaces
Choroszcz
The Branicki Palace in Choroszcz (ho-ROSHCH) is a Baroque summer residence that stands on an artificial island surrounded by canals, a short drive from Białystok in northeastern Poland. It was built for the powerful hetman Jan Klemens Bran…
Amusement parks
Hajnówka
In a single garden on ul. Bielska in Hajnówka, the Branicki Palace, the monastery on Lake Wigry, the mosque of Kruszyniany and the synagogue of Orla stand side by side — all at a scale of 1:25. The Podlasie Monuments Miniature Park is a qu…
Gardens
Białowieża
All that remains of the tsars' palace in Białowieża is a red-brick kitchen gate, but the park that surrounded it has survived almost intact. The Palace Park was laid out around 1900 around the hunting residence of the Russian tsars; today…
Thermal baths & water parks
Hajnówka
After a day in the Białowieża Forest, especially in winter, warm water comes in handy. Hajnówka Water Park, opened in December 2009, is a municipal complex with a 25-metre sports pool, a leisure pool with a lazy river and wave machine, two…
Gardens
Białystok
The parks of Białystok (pronounced roughly "bya-WIS-tok") are the easiest way to understand why this northeastern Polish city calls itself one of the greenest in the country. Right in the center, a few minutes' walk from the main square, a…
Nature
Tykocin
It all started with a hurricane. In 1991 a storm snapped the trees around the old Pentowo estate on the edge of Tykocin, and white storks quickly moved onto the jagged trunks. Today more than 30 pairs nest here, on poles, roofs, trees and…
Lakes
Augustów
Augustów's town beach lies on the southern shore of Lake Necko, in the Zarzecze area, close to where the Netta flows out of the lake – the river that continues as the Augustów Canal. A sandy shore, a wooden pier with lamp posts and the gua…
Hiking & tourist trails
Białowieża
The red markers of the Podlaskie Stork Trail lead cyclists through a land where storks nest in almost every village – from Lake Hańcza and the viaducts of Stańczyki to the Białowieża Forest. Work on the trail began in 2002; it links four n…