Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Churches & monasteries
Kłodzko
Cross the Gothic bridge over the Młynówka and two towers with onion domes rise ahead – the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary with its Franciscan friary, the main landmark of Sand Island (Wyspa Piasek). The church stands on an island between…
Churches & monasteries
Opole
The Franciscan Church in Opole, officially the Church of the Holy Trinity, is the burial place of the medieval Piast dukes of Opole and one of the most precious historic buildings in the city. Its St. Anne's Chapel, known as the Piast Chap…
Churches & monasteries
Poznań
The Franciscan Church in Poznań, officially the Church of St. Anthony of Padua with its Conventual Franciscan friary, stands on Franciszkańska Street at the foot of Przemysł Hill, a two-minute walk from the Old Market Square. Behind its mo…
Churches & monasteries
Głogówek
In 1633, during an epidemic, the authorities and townspeople of nearby Prudnik vowed that they and their descendants would forever make pilgrimages to the Loreto House in Głogówek. This faithful copy of the "Holy House" of Loreto in Italy…
Churches & monasteries
Gniezno
In the side aisle of the Franciscan church, in the former oratory of the Poor Clare nuns, lie the remains of Blessed Jolenta (Yolanda) – a Hungarian princess, sister of St Kinga and grandmother of King Casimir the Great. Kings Sigismund th…
Churches & monasteries
Pyzdry
On an escarpment above the Warta, a few steps from the market square in Pyzdry, stands one of only three surviving medieval Franciscan complexes in Greater Poland. The brick church and monastery were built around 1339 on the initiative of…
Churches & monasteries
Szydłów
Outside the town walls of Szydłów, next to the parish cemetery, stand the stone ruins of the Holy Spirit church and a former hospital for the poor and elderly. The municipality stresses that it is a rare surviving example in Świętokrzyskie…
Churches & monasteries
Jelenia Góra
On Sunday 1 August 1745 at 2 pm, lightning struck the tower of the Church of Grace in Jelenia Góra. It ran down a metal rod holding the canopy over the pulpit and reached the preacher – Pastor Gottlob Adolph was killed in the middle of his…
Churches & monasteries
Chojna
The tower of St Mary's in Chojna can be seen from far away across the flat fields of West Pomerania. It is one of the largest Gothic churches in Poland, attributed to the workshop of Hinrich Brunsberg, and after a fire in 1945 it stood as…
Churches & monasteries
Legnica
St. Mary's Church in Legnica (pronounced "leg-NEE-tsah") is the oldest surviving church in this Lower Silesian city and one of the oldest in all of Silesia. Its story begins in the 12th century, and according to the medieval chronicler Jan…
Churches & monasteries
Trzebiatów
St. Mary's Church in Trzebiatów (officially the Church of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Trzebiatów is pronounced roughly "tsheh-BYAH-toof") is a soaring Gothic brick church whose tower reaches about 90 m. It stands in a small…
Churches & monasteries
Poznań
In Krzesiny, on the south-eastern edge of Poznań, stands a church that looks as if it had been shipped in from northern Norway. The steep roofs, dark weatherboarding and intricate little tower are not Scandinavian, though: the building was…
Churches & monasteries
Lubin
Lubin's oldest church took more than a century and a half to build and survived the war only as a shell. The Gothic Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa stands right by the old town walls, and inside you will find a Renaissance pulpit, star v…
Churches & monasteries
Sochaczew
The Church of Our Lady of Consolation in Żyrardów (roughly "zhih-RAR-doof") is a red-brick Gothic Revival church built in 1900–1903, its twin spires rising more than 70 m (230 ft) above a former textile town west of Warsaw. Paid for by the…
Churches & monasteries
Rusowo
At a crossroads in the village of Rusowo, on a low rise next to a pond, stands a little church that remembers medieval Pomerania. Its massive tower and nave of fieldstone have survived fires, wars and shifting borders, and inside a Renaiss…
Churches & monasteries
Dobczyce
From the outside it is a stone post-war basilica whose tower rises above the market square of Dobczyce. Inside, however, is a Gothic 15th-century Pietà linked to the workshop of Veit Stoss, a medieval crucifix and a 13th-century stoup – th…
Churches & monasteries
Bielsk Podlaski
Two white towers with Baroque cupolas on ulica Mickiewicza are one of the most distinctive sights in Bielsk Podlaski. Few churches in Poland have changed roles so often: it has been a Carmelite church, a tsarist Orthodox cathedral, a Germa…
Churches & monasteries
Krasiczyn
In Prałkowce, just outside Przemyśl, a former Greek Catholic church from 1842 holds a painting that travelled from today's Ukraine via Leżajsk to the San valley. It is Our Lady of Zbarazh (Zbaraż) – a 16th-century copy of the Częstochowa i…
Churches & monasteries
Wałbrzych
Wałbrzych's oldest church is also one of its smallest. The little Church of Our Lady of Sorrows on Plac Kościelny holds a Pietà before which pilgrims have prayed for centuries. Since 3 May 2010 Our Lady of Sorrows has been the official pat…
Churches & monasteries
Zielona Góra
Outside, a black-and-white grid of half-timbering; inside, three tiers of wooden galleries and a pulpit resting on a column shaped like a palm trunk. The Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa is the former Lutheran church "Garden of Christ" (Z…
Churches & monasteries
gmina Przygodzice
This brick church with an octagonal dome in Antonin was built as the Radziwiłł mausoleum, the family tomb of Prince Antoni, Governor of the Grand Duchy of Posen. Inside, a richly carved stone screen in a Venetian-Byzantine spirit catches t…
Churches & monasteries
Zakopane
The church in Harenda arrived in Zakopane by train. Built in 1710–1720 in Zakrzów near Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, it stood unused and decaying after a new church was built there, until in 1947–1948 it was dismantled, carried to the foot of the…
Churches & monasteries
Bralin
The wooden church known as Na Pólku ("in the little field") stands alone on a low rise among farmland, nearly 2 km south-east of Bralin, reached only by dirt roads. From outside it looks modest, but the interior covers 592 m² and, accordin…
Landmarks
Wieluń
Hidden in a clump of old trees beside a stream stands a larch-wood church that is barely visible from national road 45. The Church of the Holy Name of Mary in Gaszyn, 3 km south of Wieluń, belongs to the Wieluń group of 16th-century wooden…