Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Palaces
Izbicko
Izbicko Palace (German: Stubendorf) burned at least three times, and after each fire it came back in a different style. The residence, which dates back to the 16th century, survived a Neoclassical rebuild, looting during the Third Silesian…
Landscape parks
Góra Świętej Anny
Góra Świętej Anny (St Anne's Mountain) Landscape Park protects 5,051 ha of the Chełm Ridge, the westernmost part of the Silesian Upland, which rises above the flat Opole Plain. It is one of the smaller landscape parks in Poland, yet it hol…
Landscape parks
Pokrzywna
Opawskie Mountains Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Góry Opawskie, roughly "PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee GOO-ry oh-PAHV-skee-eh") is the Polish part of the Eastern Sudetes between the towns of Prudnik and Głuchołazy, right on the Czech bord…
Amusement parks
Ujazd
In a garden in Olszowa, Cologne Cathedral stands more than 6 metres tall – the highest of 18 models of churches built at a scale of 1:25. The miniature park in the commune of Ujazd (Strzelce Opolskie county) was, according to its owners, t…
Museums
Ozimek
The visit begins in a "space dock hangar": a shuttle takes 50 passengers at a time, launches every 15 minutes and carries them 66 million years back, to the moment when life on Earth was almost wiped out. The Science and Human Evolution Pa…
Gardens
Pokój
The historic park in Pokój (pronounced "POH-kooy", meaning "peace") is a former ducal palace garden in the Opole region of southern Poland and one of the most remarkable landscape gardens in Silesia. It is all that remains of Carlsruhe, th…
Gardens
Strzelce Opolskie
Count Andrzej Maria Renard was so taken with English landscape gardens that he sent his gardener to London to study them. The result can still be seen in Strzelce Opolskie: a historic landscape park of roughly 62–65 ha (sources differ), wi…
Landmarks
Nysa
A few steps from Nysa's market square, at the start of Wrocławska Street, stands a well regarded as a masterpiece of Baroque wrought ironwork. The Beautiful Well of 1686 has a forged casing more than 5 metres high, crowned by the gilded do…
Monuments & mounds
Góra Świętej Anny
The Monument to the Silesian Insurgents on St. Anne's Mountain (Góra Świętej Anny, roughly "GOO-ra SHVYEN-tey AH-nee") is a massive granite memorial by sculptor Xawery Dunikowski, unveiled in 1955 above a former quarry turned giant amphith…
Old towns & squares
Kluczbork
The relief in the tympanum on the west wall of the town hall shows a square that no longer exists: the town hall surrounded by twelve small houses known as the "Twelve Apostles". A fire in 1925 destroyed eight of them; the two survivors st…
Old towns & squares
Namysłów
Every day around midday a fanfare for three trumpets sounds from the tower of Namysłów town hall. Built in 1374–1378, with a 57-metre tower, the town hall stands in the middle of the square of the town where a peace treaty ending a Polish–…
Old towns & squares
Opole
Opole Market Square (Rynek, pronounced "RIH-nek") with its Town Hall is the historic heart of Opole, the capital of the Opole region in southern Poland, and the natural place to start any visit. The square keeps its medieval rectangular pl…
Old towns & squares
Krapkowice
In 1806 the house at number 4 on Krapkowice's market square was home to Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon's younger brother, who was then commanding a French corps in Silesia. It is the oldest surviving house on the square and the best starting p…
Old towns & squares
Niemodlin
The market square in Niemodlin is neither square nor rectangular – it is spindle-shaped, widening in the middle and narrowing at both ends. Its sides are lined with town houses mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries, and a Gothic church a…
Old towns & squares
Nysa
Nysa Market Square is a medieval market place measuring about 200 × 100 m and for centuries the heart of the capital of a bishops' duchy. The war destroyed most of its buildings, but some gems survived: the Renaissance Town Weigh House, a…
Old towns & squares
Prudnik
Prudnik's rectangular market square was laid out using the "Flemish rope", a medieval unit of measurement – which is why the square covers exactly one morgen (an old land measure). In the middle stands the town hall with a 63-metre tower,…
Churches & monasteries
Kamień Śląski
The Shrine of St. Hyacinth in Kamień Śląski (roughly "KAH-myen SHLON-skee") is a restored Baroque palace in southern Poland where, according to tradition, St. Hyacinth (Jacek Odrowąż) was born in 1183. The Dominican friar became one of med…
Other
Moszna
Three years running – in 2009, 2010 and 2011 – the Velká Pardubická, Europe's biggest steeplechase, was won by the same horse: Tiumen, ridden by Josef Váňa. He was born at the stud in Moszna, which since 1948 has occupied the historic stab…
Nature
gmina Lubsza
The Oder has not always flowed where it does today. The traces of its old bends are oxbow lakes – crescent-shaped ponds on the valley floor, which the managers of Stobrawa Landscape Park count among its most valuable natural sites. On thei…
Other
Żyrowa
In Silesian dialect, "bifyj" is not a dish but a kitchen dresser – the cupboard that stood in almost every Upper Silesian kitchen, holding provisions, holiday treats and the best tableware. This piece of furniture gave its name to the culi…
Historic sites
Nysa
A shell on a blue background and a yellow arrow point the way from Nysa to Santiago de Compostela – the apostle's tomb is a very long way off, but every stretch of the Way of St James belongs to the same European network. Through Nysa runs…
Fortifications
Prudnik
The Lower Gate Tower on Batorego Street is the most visible trace of Prudnik's medieval fortifications and one of the town's symbols. Its stone core, brick superstructure and octagonal top under a slender spire show three building phases a…
Fortifications
Głuchołazy
The stone tower on Plac Basztowy grew together with the town of Głuchołazy: at first it was 13 metres tall, in the 15th century it was raised to about 20, and around 1600 it gained a Renaissance parapet. Today it is the only surviving towe…
Viewpoints
Baborów
On the edge of Baborów, on ul. Wiejska, stands a small observation tower opened in September 2019. Its deck looks out over the farmland of the Głubczyce Plateau, with fields, clumps of trees and the surrounding villages. It's a short, free…