Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Coast
Frombork
The walk along the pier in Frombork leads about 300 metres out into the Vistula Lagoon, and since 2020 it begins on a new promenade with a renovated town beach. The pier was built in 1973, and after dark rows of lamps light up along its ra…
Landmarks
Szczytno
Szczytno Town Hall looks like a medieval stronghold, but it is a reinforced-concrete building from 1936–1937, partly erected on the ruins of a Teutonic castle. A 46-metre tower rises above the four-winged block with its inner courtyard, an…
Other
Giżycko
Boat trips with Żegluga Mazurska (roughly "zheh-GLOO-gah mah-ZOOR-skah") are the easiest way to see Poland's Great Masurian Lakes from the water without hiring a boat yourself. The company's white passenger ships sail from Giżycko, Mikołaj…
Nature
Giżycko
In the heart of the Borecka Forest, between Giżycko and Olecko, lies the Borki reserve – the central and best-preserved part of one of the most valuable forests of the Masurian Lake District. It is a realm of oak–hornbeam–lime woodland and…
Nature
Mikołajki
Lake Łuknajno (say "wook-NIGH-no"), about 5 km (3 miles) east of Mikołajki in Poland's Masurian Lake District, is a shallow, reed-fringed lake protected for its birds – above all the mute swan. It was the first site in Poland listed under…
Old towns & squares
Gołdap
Victory Square (Plac Zwycięstwa) is the former market square of Gołdap – a space so large that before the war it was regarded as the second-largest market square in East Prussia. Today it is hard to recognise the old trading centre: instea…
Old towns & squares
Olsztyn
Olsztyn's Old Town Market Square (Rynek Starego Miasta, pronounced roughly "OL-shtin") is the heart of the capital of Warmia and Masuria in northeastern Poland and the natural starting point for exploring the city's compact old town. A red…
Old towns & squares
Frombork
Frombork's Market Square is laid out like a model of the Solar System: dark arcs in grey granite paving are the orbits, benches stand in for the planets, and Nicolaus Copernicus sits on the third one, Earth. The bronze figure looks towards…
Museums
Barczewo
"We shall not abandon the land we come from" – the music for these words by Maria Konopnicka, the patriotic hymn "Rota", was written by a boy from Barczewo. Feliks Nowowiejski was born here on 7 February 1877, when the town was called Wart…
Churches & monasteries
Gietrzwałd
The Gietrzwałd Marian Shrine (gyet-ZHVAHLD) is the only site in Poland where Marian apparitions have been officially approved by the Catholic Church. In the summer of 1877 two girls reported seeing the Virgin Mary here, and today pilgrims…
Churches & monasteries
Lidzbark Warmiński
A Baroque rotunda surrounded by cloisters with corner chapels stands among the fields of Warmia, far from any town. In 1953 the communist authorities imprisoned the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, here – his cell and a memori…
Technical monuments
Ruciane-Nida
The Guzianka Lock (say "goo-ZHAN-ka") in Ruciane-Nida is a pair of chamber locks linking Lake Bełdany with the small Lake Guzianka Mała – the gateway from the main Great Masurian Lakes waterway to Ruciane-Nida and Lake Nidzkie in northeast…
Other
Krutyń
Kayaking the Krutynia River (say "kroo-TIN-ya") is one of the classic things to do in Masuria, Poland's lake district. The canoe trail runs for more than 100 km (60+ miles) from Sorkwity to Ruciane-Nida, linking a string of glacial lakes w…
Old towns & squares
Elbląg
Elbląg Old Town (say "EL-blonk") is one of the most unusual historic centers in Poland: it looks medieval at first glance, yet most of its gabled townhouses are less than forty years old. After the old Hanseatic town was flattened in 1945,…
Churches & monasteries
Święta Lipka
The Sanctuary of Święta Lipka (say "SHVYEN-tah LEEP-kah", meaning "Holy Linden") is a Baroque pilgrimage basilica in Poland's Warmia and Masuria lake district, run by the Jesuits. Its pink-and-ochre facade, arcaded cloisters and a famous o…
Landmarks
Barczewo
On ul. Kościuszki stands a pale Neoclassical building with large round-arched windows that looks more like a concert hall than a house of prayer. It is Barczewo's former synagogue, the only one surviving in the Olsztyn district. It was sav…
Historic sites
gmina Pasłęk
The Copernicus Trail is a driving route through the places where Nicolaus Copernicus lived, worked and wrote "On the Revolutions". In its current form it is about 590 km long and links three provinces: Warmia-Masuria, Pomerania and Kuyavia…
Other
Frombork
In the park on ulica Dworcowa, between the Water Tower and the former railway station, stand two wooden brine graduation towers (tężnie), with curved rows of benches facing them as if they were a stage. They were officially opened on 11 Ju…
Technical monuments
Giżycko
For 96 years this brick tower at ul. Warszawska 37 supplied Giżycko with water; today people drink coffee at the top with a view of Lake Niegocin and Boyen Fortress. The Gothic Revival structure of 1900 is regarded as the tallest building…
Technical monuments
Gołdap
The brick water tower on Paderewskiego Street is one of the highest points in Gołdap and one of the town's few historic buildings. It stands 46.5 m tall, was built in 1905, and since 2009 it has held a café and two viewing terraces instead…
Viewpoints
Kurzętnik
On Kurza Góra in Kurzętnik, a wooden walkway almost two kilometres long climbs gently through the treetops to the top of a 35-metre tower. From up there you look over the Drwęca valley – the same valley that King Władysław Jagiełło's army…
Technical monuments
Frombork
The Water Tower in Frombork was built in 1571, 28 years after Copernicus died, although for years the idea of building it was credited to him. The brick tower housed a machine that lifted water more than 20 metres and sent it through pipes…
Landmarks
Olsztyn
The High Gate in Olsztyn (Polish: Wysoka Brama, "VIH-so-kah BRAH-mah"), historically called the Upper Gate, is a 14th-century Gothic town gate and the classic entrance to the Old Town of this lakeside city in northeastern Poland. It is the…
Mountains & peaks
Ostróda
On a clear day the wooden tower on top of Dylewska Góra reportedly gives a view as far as Russia's Kaliningrad region — fitting, since you are standing on the highest point in the whole of north-eastern Poland, 312 m above sea level. The D…