Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
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…
Landmarks
Łańcut
The Łańcut Synagogue (say "WAHN-tsoot") is an 18th-century Baroque synagogue on Sobieski Square, right next to the park of Łańcut Castle in southeastern Poland. Its plain exterior hides one of the finest surviving synagogue interiors in th…
Landmarks
Lesko
The Lesko Synagogue ("LESS-ko") is one of the finest surviving Jewish monuments in southeastern Poland and the most striking building in Lesko, the small town known as the gateway to the Bieszczady Mountains. Built of stone in the 17th cen…
Landmarks
Szczebrzeszyn
The pink building with a high mansard roof on ul. Sądowa was the main synagogue of Szczebrzeszyn's Jewish community. It was built in the early 17th century in the late Renaissance style, on the site of an even older synagogue. It survived…
Landmarks
Zamość
The Zamość Synagogue is one of the finest Renaissance synagogues in Poland and a powerful reminder of the Jewish community that helped shape this UNESCO-listed planned town in the Lublin region. Built in the early 17th century on the initi…
Other
Olsztyn
Below the castle ruins in Olsztyn, a Jurassic Highland village near Częstochowa, folk artist Jan Wewiór has been carving a moving nativity scene for years, which he calls "Bethlehem under the Thatch". It has more than 800 figures carved fr…
Other
Katowice
Every December the high altar and side aisles of the neo-Romanesque Franciscan basilica in Katowice-Panewniki disappear behind a Bethlehem landscape measuring 18 m high, 32 m wide and 10 m deep. The Panewniki crib is regarded as Europe's l…
Technical monuments
Zabrze
Queen Louise Adit (Sztolnia Królowa Luiza, roughly "SHTOL-nyah kroo-LOH-vah loo-EE-zah") in Zabrze is the underground heart of Poland's Coal Mining Museum: more than two centuries of mine workings, giant machines shown in motion and, best…
Technical monuments
Złoty Stok
In the Ochre Adit (Sztolnia Ochrowa) the walls are the colour of rust, mustard and orange. This is natural ochre – a pigment formed from iron compounds, the same one used for centuries in paints and cosmetics. The passage is about 130 metr…
Technical monuments
Walim
In the hillside above the village of Rzeczka, right by regional road 383, run rock-cut tunnels with a total length of about 500 m. This is the "Rzeczka" complex, one of seven underground sections of Project Riese ("Giant"), which Nazi Germ…
Technical monuments
Kowary
Sztolnie Kowary (SHTOL-nyeh ko-VAH-rih, "the Kowary Adits") is an underground tour through the former Liczyrzepa uranium mine in Kowary, a small town at the foot of Poland's Giant Mountains. On a one-hour guided walk you follow tunnels whe…
Fortifications
Walim
The Walim Adits (Polish: Sztolnie Walimskie, roughly "shtol-nyeh vah-leem-skyeh"), also known as the Rzeczka complex, are one of three sections of Nazi Germany's secret Project Riese that you can visit today. Hidden in the Owl Mountains of…
Other
Gdynia
Poland's largest musical theatre is not in Warsaw or Kraków but on Grunwaldzki Square in Gdynia. The Danuta Baduszkowa Musical Theatre has three stages seating more than 1,580 people in total, and in terms of capacity only the Grand Theatr…
Thermal baths & water parks
Białka Tatrzańska
Terma Bania in Białka Tatrzańska (roughly "BYAW-kah tah-TZHAN-skah") is one of the busiest thermal water parks in the Polish Tatra foothills. It sits at the foot of the Kotelnica Białczańska ski slopes and offers 15 pools, more than 300 m…
Thermal baths & water parks
Bukowina Tatrzańska
The water you swim in at Bukowina Tatrzańska fell as rain on the forested lower slopes of the Tatras around 10,000 years ago. For millennia it seeped through the rock until a borehole 2,400 m deep brought it to the surface at 67°C. Termy B…
Thermal baths & water parks
Poznań
Termy Maltańskie in Poznań (roughly TER-mih mahl-TAHN-skyeh, POZ-nahn) is one of Poland's largest swimming complexes: a water park, a sauna area and Olympic-standard sports pools on the north shore of Lake Malta. Some pools are fed with ge…
Thermal baths & water parks
Mszczonów
Termy Mszczonów (say "TEHR-mih MSHCHO-noof") is a small municipal thermal pool complex in the town of Mszczonów, about 40 km southwest of Warsaw. Its pools are filled with untreated geothermal water from a well more than 1,600 meters deep,…
Thermal baths & water parks
Uniejów
Termy Uniejów (Uniejów Thermal Baths; say "oo-NYEH-yoof") is a year-round thermal pool complex on the Warta River in the small town of Uniejów, in central Poland. In 2012 Uniejów was granted official spa-resort status thanks to its geother…
Thermal baths & water parks
Zakopane
Termy Zakopiańskie (roughly "TER-mi zah-ko-PYAN-skyeh"), formerly known as Aqua Park Zakopane, is the thermal water park inside Zakopane itself, Poland's best-known mountain resort. It sits on Jagiellońska Street at the foot of Antałówka h…
Technical monuments
Nowa Ruda
Coal was mined in Nowa Ruda earlier than anywhere else in what is now Poland – the first records date from 1434. The last miners came to the surface in 1995, but the surviving Lech adit – the last part of the mine – has been open to touris…
Fortifications
Zamość
Zamość Fortress, and in particular its restored Bastion VII with the outwork known as the Nadszaniec (a raised cavalier), is the best place to see how this Renaissance "ideal city" in southeastern Poland was defended. A guided underground…
Museums
Kraków
A few metres below the Arcaded Courtyard lies one of the oldest stone buildings in Poland: a pre-Romanesque rotunda shaped like a four-leaf clover, dated by radiocarbon testing to around 970. Lost Wawel is an archaeological and architectur…
Technical monuments
Bydgoszcz
The Bydgoszcz Water Tower (Wieża ciśnień, roughly "VYEH-zha CHEESH-nyen") is a red-brick neo-Gothic tower from 1900 standing on the escarpment above the Old Town. Today it houses the Water Supply Museum and, at the top, a viewing gallery w…