Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Mountains & peaks
Istebna
At Szarcula Pass (about 760 m) rain falling on one side of the ridge ends up in the Vistula and the Baltic Sea, and on the other side flows via the Olza and the Oder. The pass is a shallow saddle in the Barania Góra range, on the main Euro…
Mountains & peaks
Brenna
Równica is an 884.6 m peak in the Silesian Beskids, rising between the Vistula valley at Ustroń and the Brennica valley at Brenna – the boundary of the two municipalities runs along its ridge. It is known for a wide meadow with a panorama…
Museums
Tychy
Tyskie Browarium, officially the Museum of the Tyskie Princely Breweries, is a brewing museum inside a working brewery in Tychy, where beer has been brewed without interruption for almost 400 years. The exhibition fills a restored former P…
Other
Katowice
At the western end of Mickiewicza Street stand two silver-and-gold office towers that in 1981 were the tallest buildings in Poland outside Warsaw. The Stalexport Towers were designed by an architect from Belgrade and built by a Swedish fir…
Gardens
Rudy
Behind the chancel of the former Cistercian church in Rudy grows an oak that dates back to the last Jagiellonian kings, and right next to it stand young trees named after popes. The Papal Oaks Avenue is a small but unusual spot in the park…
Landmarks
Częstochowa
Holy Virgin Mary Avenue (Aleja Najświętszej Maryi Panny, known locally simply as "Aleje") is the grand central boulevard of Częstochowa (say "chen-stoh-HOH-vah"), Poland's great pilgrimage city. Some 44 m wide, with a tree-lined pedestrian…
Zoos
Poczesna
Alpakarnia Poczesna in Nowa Wieś (Poczesna municipality), just outside Częstochowa, started out as an alpaca farm and has grown into a family park with a mini zoo and playground. According to the operator it is home to around 100 tame alpa…
Churches & monasteries
Częstochowa
The Archcathedral of the Holy Family in Częstochowa (say "chen-stoh-HOH-vah") is one of the largest churches in Poland: a neo-Gothic red-brick basilica with twin spires over 80 m (260 ft) tall, standing just a few minutes' walk from the ci…
Landmarks
Sławków
In August 1697 King Augustus II the Strong feasted at the Sławków inn and — so the story goes — broke a silver cup with his bare hands in front of the guests. The wooden inn at Rynek 2 still stands and still feeds visitors: a restaurant ha…
Mountains & peaks
Soblówka
Poland's first PTTK "bacówka" – a small mountain hut – was supposed to be flown up to the meadow in one piece by helicopter from the village of Soblówka. That proved technically impossible, so the wooden hut was built on site on Hala Rycer…
Mountains & peaks
Koniaków
In the hamlet of Szańce in Koniaków, the Kohut family runs a Shepherding Centre: a wooden shepherd's hut, known locally as the "kolyba", a highlander shop and an educational farm with sheep and goats. The farm practises traditional grazing…
Amusement parks
Katowice
Bajka Pana Kleksa (Mr Blot's Fairy Tale) is a family centre for play and learning in the former Porcelain Factory in Katowice: more than 1,400 m² of puzzles, experiments and sets inspired by Jan Brzechwa's novels about Professor Klex. It i…
Mountains & peaks
Istebna
Signs give the height as 1220 m, but that figure refers to a survey point set almost 5 m above the ground on a concrete obelisk – the summit itself is about 1215 m. Barania Góra is the second-highest peak of the Silesian Beskids (after Skr…
Fortifications
Częstochowa
The walls of St Roch's Bastion still bear the marks of Swedish cannonballs from the siege of Jasna Góra in 1655. This massive, many-sided bastion at the north-western corner of the former Jasna Góra fortress was built in 1631–1636. Its old…
Gardens
Siemianowice Śląskie
Bażantarnia is a forest in Bańgów, a district of Siemianowice Śląskie, protected since 1997 as an ecological site of around 39 ha. Oaks, limes, ash trees and sycamores grow here, and right next to the woods are ponds and a small brine grad…
Churches & monasteries
Rybnik
Two soaring towers with copper spires can be seen from almost anywhere in Rybnik. The neo-Gothic Basilica of St Anthony, informally called the Cathedral of the Rybnik Land, is considered the tallest church in Upper Silesia – Polish sources…
Churches & monasteries
Zawiercie
Five red-brick towers above central Zawiercie are a reminder of the days when the town grew up around a huge cotton mill. The neo-Gothic Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul was built for the workers of the Zawiercie Joint-Stock Company (TAZ)…
Nature
Olsztyn
From a distance, this treeless rocky ridge topped by a cross looks like a miniature of Giewont, the famous peak in the Tatra Mountains, and that's exactly what hikers call it: Little Giewont. Biakło, near Olsztyn just outside Częstochowa,…
Nature
Siedlec
A few dozen metres from a forest road near Złoty Potok stands a limestone outcrop pierced by an oval opening about 5 m wide and 4 m high. Twardowski's Gate (Brama Twardowskiego) is a natural rock arch in the Parkowe nature reserve, named b…
Technical monuments
Racibórz
In the north wing of the Piast Castle in Racibórz, beer has been brewed for more than 160 years – and the tradition of a ducal brewery at the castle goes back to the 16th century. The Castle Brewery (Browar Zamkowy) is one of the oldest wo…
Ski resorts
Szczyrk
The COS Skrzyczne ski area in Szczyrk (say "shchirk") is run by Poland's Central Sports Center on the slopes of Skrzyczne (1,257 m / 4,124 ft), the highest peak of the Silesian Beskids. In winter it offers some of the steepest runs in the…
Museums
Podlesice
The Jura Natural and Cultural Heritage Center in Podlesice (pronounced roughly "pod-leh-SHEE-tseh") is a small visitor center at the foot of Góra Zborów, one of the most striking limestone hills of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland – the "Poli…
Nature
Psary
The Ecological Education Centre in Góra Siewierska is a fenced park in Psary municipality (Będzin County), opened in April 2022. Its 1.7 ha hold a 15-metre viewing tower, a trail of boards on climate protection, several themed gardens and…
Palaces
Świerklaniec
The white Neo-Gothic palace with a tall tower in Nakło Śląskie looks more like a Tudor-era English residence than a typical Silesian palace. It was built in 1856–1858 by Count Hugo I Henckel von Donnersmarck, one of the richest industrial…