Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Landmarks
Szydłowiec
A white town hall with four corner turrets stands alone in the middle of the Main Market Square and can be seen from several kilometres away. Built of local stone between 1602 and 1629, it is one of the best-preserved late Renaissance town…
Old towns & squares
Węgrów
In the sacristy of the church on Węgrów's market square hangs a metal mirror with a Latin inscription claiming that Master Twardowski, Poland's own Faust, once used it for sorcery, before it was "converted" to the service of God. That lege…
Museums
Sierpc
The Sierpc open-air museum (say “SHYER-pts”), officially the Museum of the Mazovian Countryside, is one of the largest skansens in Poland. Across about 60 hectares of river meadows stand more than 80 historic buildings: thatched farmhouses…
Other
Warszawa
The National Stadium in Warsaw (Stadion Narodowy, known by its sponsor name PGE Narodowy) is Poland's largest stadium and one of the capital's most recognizable modern landmarks. Its red-and-silver "basket" rises from the Vistula's east ba…
Old towns & squares
Warszawa
Warsaw Old Town (Stare Miasto) is the historic heart of Poland's capital: a pastel-colored Market Square with the Mermaid statue, Castle Square with Sigismund's Column, the Royal Castle, a Gothic cathedral and red-brick city walls with the…
Thermal baths & water parks
Wręcza
Suntago Park of Poland in Wręcza (VREN-chah), near the town of Mszczonów, is Poland's largest indoor water park and one of the biggest in Europe, about 50–60 km (35 miles) southwest of Warsaw. Hundreds of real palm trees grow under a vast…
Monuments & mounds
Warszawa
The Warsaw Mermaid (Syrenka, pronounced "sih-REN-kah") on the Old Town Market Square is the city's best-known monument to its own coat of arms: a sword-wielding mermaid with a round shield, standing in the middle of a square of pastel town…
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,…
Landmarks
Płock
Cathedral Hill in Płock (Wzgórze Tumskie; say "PWOTSK") is the historic heart of one of Poland's oldest cities, perched on a high bank above the Vistula River about 120 km northwest of Warsaw. Here a Romanesque-Renaissance cathedral holdin…
Museums
Warszawa
Zachęta National Gallery of Art (pronounced "zah-HEN-tah") is Poland's leading contemporary art gallery, housed in an elegant 1900 building on Małachowski Square in central Warsaw. There is no permanent display: exhibitions by Polish and i…
Castles
Ciechanów
Ciechanów Castle (Zamek Książąt Mazowieckich), the Castle of the Dukes of Masovia, is a Gothic red-brick fortress built in the early 15th century on the Łydynia river. Two massive round towers, walls about 10 m high and a spacious courtyar…
Castles
Szydłowiec
Szydłowiec Castle (Zamek Szydłowieckich i Radziwiłłów) is a white Gothic-Renaissance residence of the Szydłowiecki and Radziwiłł families, set on an island among the channels of the Korzeniówka stream. Today it houses the Museum of Folk Mu…
Castles
Radom
An unassuming single-storey building on ul. Wałowa, now the presbytery of St John's parish church, is all that remains of the Royal Castle in Radom. Yet it was here in 1505 that the Sejm passed the Nihil novi constitution, which barred the…
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…