Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Gardens
Katowice
In 1928 two lionesses moved into this Katowice park – a gift from the owner of a circus in Dresden. The lions are long gone, but Tadeusz Kościuszko Park is still the most valuable green space in Katowice: with a 16th-century wooden church…
Landscape parks
Kocierz Rychwałdzki
Little Beskids Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Beskidu Małego, roughly "PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee BES-kee-doo MAH-weh-go") is a quiet mountain park in southern Poland, between the towns of Bielsko-Biała, Żywiec and Wadowice. Gentle fore…
Landscape parks
Brenna
Silesian Beskids Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Beskidu Śląskiego, roughly "PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee BES-kee-doo SHLOHN-skee-eh-go") is the largest mountain landscape park in Silesia, southern Poland: almost 39,000 hectares of forest,…
Landscape parks
Kotowice
The Eagles' Nests Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Orlich Gniazd, OR-leekh GNYAHZ-d) is a Jurassic landscape of limestone rock towers and medieval castle ruins in southern Poland, between Mstów near Częstochowa and the Biała Przemsza vall…
Gardens
Sosnowiec
In the 1960s miners from the Kazimierz-Juliusz colliery, scouts and local residents of Kazimierz Górniczy gave up their free time to drain marshland here, shape the banks of the ponds and plant trees. The result was the Leśna sports and le…
Gardens
Tarnowskie Góry
Repty Park (Park w Reptach, roughly "REP-tih") in Tarnowskie Góry is a 19th-century landscape park of about 200 hectares (500 acres), laid out by the aristocratic Henckel von Donnersmarck family on the site of a former deer park. Old beech…
Gardens
Chorzów
Where trees grow today, in 1950 there were spoil heaps, illegal mine shafts and marshland. Silesian Park (Park Śląski) in Chorzów – until 2012 called the Jerzy Ziętek Provincial Park of Culture and Recreation – covers 535 hectares and is o…
Gardens
Świerklaniec
Around 200 hectares of greenery, more than 8 ha of ponds and canals, and avenues laid out in the spirit of Peter Joseph Lenné: Świerklaniec Park is one of the finest landscape parks in Upper Silesia. It was the setting of the Henckel von D…
Gardens
Złoty Potok
In the park at Złoty Potok stands a memorial boulder with an inscription recalling that Jan Kiepura, later a world-famous tenor, attended the nursery school run here by Countess Stefania Raczyńska. It is a good starting point for a walk th…
Gardens
Goczałkowice-Zdrój
The Spa Park in Goczałkowice-Zdrój is the green heart of one of only two spa resorts in the Silesian Voivodeship (the other is Ustroń). Historic pavilions from the second half of the 19th century stand along its paths, and the most valuabl…
Viewpoints
Pyrzowice
The plane-spotting platforms at Katowice Airport in Pyrzowice (say: pih-zho-VEE-tseh) are two free, purpose-built viewing decks where you can watch and photograph airliners taking off, landing and taxiing at close range. The airport built…
Lakes
Czernichów
The lake beside Czernichów's beach was designed by the man who became Poland's first president. Gabriel Narutowicz, a hydraulic engineer, drew up the design for the dam on the Soła river together with Tadeusz Baecker, creating Lake Międzyb…
Lakes
Dąbrowa Górnicza
Pogoria III in Dąbrowa Górnicza (say "DOM-brova goor-NEE-cha") is the most popular lake for summer fun in Poland's Upper Silesian metropolitan area: a man-made lake of about 205 hectares (500 acres) with a city beach, lifeguarded swimming…
Lakes
Dąbrowa Górnicza
The Kuźnica Warężyńska Reservoir, known locally simply as Pogoria IV, is the youngest and largest lake in the Dąbrowa Lake District: 560 ha of water in a former sand pit, up to 23 m deep. It lies within Dąbrowa Górnicza and the municipalit…
Lakes
Żory
The dozen or so forest ponds between Żory, Szczejkowice and Palowice were created not by nature but by industry. In the 19th century bog iron ore was dug here in open pits for the Waleska ironworks, and water filled the hollows left behind…
Nature
Poraj
Bird Island came about by chance: when the Warta river was dammed in 1978 and Poraj Reservoir was filled, a raised section of an old local road from Kuźnica Stara to Masłońskie was left above the water. Today it is a natural bird sanctuary…
Nature
Siedlec
Everyone knows the Błędów Desert, but a few kilometres from Złoty Potok the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland has a second, much smaller "desert". The Siedlec Desert covers about 25 ha of open sand near the village of Siedlec, with dunes up to 30…
Viewpoints
Zwardoń
The summit of Rachowiec is not covered by forest, and that is why this modest mountain above Zwardoń has some of the widest views in the area. Wielka Racza and Rycerzowa rise to the east, Slovakia's Malá Fatra range to the south and the Ba…
Nature
Jaworzno
The water in the Żabnik Valley is so clear that from the boardwalk you can see the sand on the bottom of the ponds. It comes from karst springs that rise in the Ciężkowice district on the eastern edge of Jaworzno and feed the Żabnik stream…
Nature
Racibórz
Eight ponds, dykes lined with century-old oaks and limes, and more than half of all bird species found in Poland. The Łężczok reserve on the edge of Racibórz and the Nędza district is a former Cistercian fish farm that since 1957 has belon…
Nature
Siedlec
Ostrężnik Nature Reserve covers just 4.1 ha, yet it holds a limestone rock riddled like Swiss cheese, the ruins of a mysterious 14th-century fortress and a spring that flows only when it pleases. It was created in 1960 to protect a patch o…
Nature
Złoty Potok
In Złoty Potok the Wiercica river is born in a beech forest among limestone rocks – one of them looks like a gateway, another is a cleft known as the Devil's Bridges. The Parkowe reserve has protected this corner of the Kraków-Częstochowa…
Nature
Tarnowskie Góry
Segiet Nature Reserve (say "SEH-gyet") is a beech-forest reserve on the border of Bytom and Tarnowskie Góry in Upper Silesia, about 20 km north of Katowice. It covers the top of Srebrna Góra, literally "Silver Hill" (347 m), where centurie…
Nature
Olsztyn
Just outside Olsztyn near Częstochowa, in full view of the castle hill, runs a chain of limestone hills hiding the deepest cave of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. The Sokole Góry ("Falcon Hills") reserve protects beech woods, crags and more…