Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Gardens
Wałbrzych
The Wałbrzych Palm House (say "VAHW-bzhikh") in the Lubiechów district is a historic glasshouse built by Prince Hans Heinrich XV von Hochberg, lord of nearby Książ Castle, for his wife, the British-born socialite Daisy, Princess of Pless.…
Museums
Wrocław
The Four Domes Pavilion in Wrocław is a modernist exhibition hall by German architect Hans Poelzig that now houses the Museum of Contemporary Art, a branch of the National Museum in Wrocław. Standing next to the UNESCO-listed Centennial Ha…
Fortifications
Wałbrzych
Half a kilometre of concrete corridors and halls cut 50 metres beneath Poland's third-largest castle – and nobody knows to this day how big the whole complex really is. The Książ Castle Underground is an unfinished Nazi German project from…
Historic sites
Kłodzko
The Kłodzko Underground Tourist Route (say "KWOTS-ko") is a roughly 600 m (2,000 ft) walk through medieval cellars and tunnels beneath the old town of Kłodzko in southwestern Poland, about 90 km (55 miles) south of Wrocław. Townspeople dug…
Fortifications
Sierpnica
To this day nobody knows for certain what the concrete halls and tunnels cut into Osówka mountain from 1943 were meant for. Some say a secret headquarters for Hitler was being built here, others that it was underground armaments factories.…
Landmarks
Lubin
The white town hall with a copper-clad tower is the most recognisable building in Lubin, a town now known mainly for its copper mines. Inside is the Historical Museum, where you can step into a recreated flat of a mining family from the co…
Landmarks
Środa Śląska
On the wall of a Gothic cell in the tower of Środa's town hall, a prisoner once scratched the date "1413". It is one of the reminders of the time when the tower, built in the first half of the 14th century, served as a prison and torture c…
Landmarks
Trzebnica
The town hall with its clock tower closes off Trzebnica's market square, a few hundred metres from the Basilica of St Hedwig. Built in 1868, it combines civic offices with a small regional museum, and its stepped gables are a handy landmar…
Landmarks
Wrocław
The Old Town Hall in Wrocław (say "VROTS-wahf") is the showpiece of the city's Market Square and one of the best-preserved medieval town halls in Central Europe. Built over roughly 250 years, its brick walls, lacy stone gables and slender…
Churches & monasteries
Bardo
On the high altar of the Baroque basilica in Bardo stands a figure that is easy to miss: it is just 43 cm tall. This is the Romanesque Enthroned Madonna from the 12th century, regarded as the oldest wooden sculpture in Lower Silesia and a…
Viewpoints
Wrocław
The Sky Tower Observation Deck in Wrocław (VROTS-wahv) sits on the 49th floor, about 200 m above the city, in the tallest building in Lower Silesia. From the top you can take in the whole of Wrocław: the Oder River and its islands, the spi…
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…
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…
Landmarks
Lądek-Zdrój
A green dome topped with a lantern rises above the centre of Lądek-Zdrój, and beneath it warm water has been flowing for more than three hundred years. The Wojciech spa house was built in 1678–1680, modelled on the Turkish baths of Buda, a…
Castles
Głogów
A round brick tower crowned with a metal crown is the oldest part of a castle that hosted King Casimir IV Jagiellon, the future King Sigismund the Old and, three times, Napoleon. The Castle of the Dukes of Głogów was almost completely dest…
Castles
Trzebieszowice
In August 1813 King Frederick William III of Prussia came to this palace on the Biała Lądecka river to celebrate his birthday – and Tsar Alexander I was among the guests. Today the residence in Trzebieszowice goes by the name Zamek na Skal…
Castles
Dobromierz
A moat, stone footbridges and a 40-metre tower make Roztoka Castle look like a medieval fortress, yet inside it hides a suite of palatial salons where Netflix filmed "The Doll" and the third season of "1670". For almost 450 years this was…
Castles
Wrocław
Topacz Castle (Zamek Topacz, pronounced roughly "ZAH-mek TOH-pach") in the village of Ślęza, just beyond Wrocław's southern city limits, is a medieval residential tower that grew into a Renaissance manor and now operates as a hotel with re…
Zoos
Wrocław
Wrocław Zoo (Zoo Wrocław; the city is pronounced VROTS-wahf) is the oldest zoo within Poland's present borders, open since 1865, and one of the most visited zoos in Europe. Around 12,000 animals of more than 1,100 species live on about 32…