Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Palaces
Świerklaniec
Świerklaniec Palace, known as the Little Versailles, was one of the grandest residences in Europe of its day – and it has been gone for more than half a century. Built in 1868–1875/1876 for Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, it burned down in…
Palaces
gmina Węgorzewo
On a neck of land between lakes Dargin and Mamry stands the palace that for more than four centuries was the family seat of the Lehndorffs. Its last owner, Heinrich von Lehndorff, was one of the conspirators of the 20 July 1944 plot agains…
Palaces
Trzebiatów
Trzebiatów Palace (Trzebiatów is pronounced roughly "tsheh-BYAH-toof") is a neoclassical residence on the Rega River in northwestern Poland, about 30 km southwest of the Baltic resort of Kołobrzeg. Built on the site of a medieval stronghol…
Palaces
Turew
From the palace at Turew, General Dezydery Chłapowski reshaped the landscape of the whole area. A Napoleonic officer, a general of the November Uprising and a farmer trained in England, he planted belts of trees along the fields that still…
Palaces
Łowicz
On 4 May 1810, Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, son of Countess Maria Walewska and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, was born in the palace at Walewice. The child of a love affair that all Europe talked about later became French ambassador in London…
Palaces
Zarzecze
The first guest at Zarzecze Palace was Princess Izabela Czartoryska herself – no surprise, since Magdalena Morska née Dzieduszycka modelled her residence on Czartoryska's estate at Puławy. The same architect, Christian Piotr Aigner, who de…
Palaces
Żmigród
In July 1813, in the palace at Żmigród – then the German town of Trachenberg – King Frederick William III of Prussia, Tsar Alexander I and Sweden's Crown Prince Charles John, formerly Napoleon's marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, agreed on…
Palaces
Chroberz
In Chroberz on the Nida river stands a late neoclassical palace designed by Henryk Marconi for Margrave Aleksander Wielopolski, 13th holder of the Pińczów entail (a family estate passed down undivided). The palace and park, built in 1857–1…
Palaces
Pińczów
At the foot of Castle Hill in Pińczów stands the elegant Baroque-Classicist palace of the Wielopolski family, built in 1773–1799. It was put up instead of restoring the castle on the hill above – a castle of which the medieval chronicler J…
Palaces
Witaszyce
Turn off the S11 expressway at Witaszyce, a few kilometres from Jarocin in southern Greater Poland, and you find an unexpected combination: a Neo-Baroque palace of 1899 that now houses a hotel, and in the park next to it Poland's only Muse…
Palaces
Kołaczkowo
In Kołaczkowo in Greater Poland, on the road from Września to Pyzdry, stands a Neoclassical palace that Władysław Reymont bought in 1920. The writer spent the following years here from spring to autumn and still owned the estate when, on 1…
Palaces
Wojanów
Wojanów Palace (say "voy-AH-noof") is a white neo-Gothic residence with corner turrets on the Bóbr River in the Jelenia Góra Valley, Lower Silesia, at the foot of the Karkonosze (Giant Mountains). It's part of the "Valley of Palaces and Ga…
Palaces
Zamość
Zamość began with this building: the palace of Chancellor and Grand Hetman Jan Zamoyski was the first structure raised after the town was founded. After centuries of rebuilding it now looks modest and awaits restoration, but together with…
Palaces
Ostromecko
The Ostromecko Palaces (say "os-tro-METS-ko") are a pair of historic residences on a bluff above the Vistula River, about 14–15 km east of Bydgoszcz in north-central Poland. The Baroque-Rococo Old Palace holds a celebrated collection of hi…
Palaces
Zawiercie
This brick villa with a tower and a half-timbered gable in the centre of Zawiercie was once the home of the man who ran the town's largest factory. The Szymański Palace was built for Stanisław Szymański, director of the Zawiercie Joint-Sto…
Palaces
Krzeszowice
On the spot where gunpowder was stored for the city of Kraków around 1800 – until an explosion destroyed the magazine – stands one of the most intriguing villas in the Jura uplands west of Kraków. The Domański Villa in Nawojowa Góra, forme…
Palaces
Puck
This neo-Gothic residence on the Bay of Puck looks like a medieval fortress, though it was built in 1840–1845 – locals have long called it a castle, and tourist guides call it the John III Sobieski Palace. An old linden avenue leads up to…
Palaces
Rokosowo
Corner towers with battlements, a dry moat and a coat of arms above the entrance – from a distance the residence in Rokosowo looks like a knight's stronghold. In fact it is a Romantic palace of the Mycielski family from the mid-19th centur…
Palaces
Mszczonów
Radziejowice played host to Kings Sigismund III Vasa and Władysław IV, and in the 19th century to the novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz and the painter Józef Chełmoński. The Krasiński family's neoclassical palace, a neo-Gothic "little castle" an…