Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Nature
Augustów
The Augustów Primeval Forest is one of the largest continuous forests in Poland: more than 114,000 hectares on the Polish side of the border and about 160,000 including the parts in Lithuania and Belarus. Lakes, peat bogs and rivers lie hi…
Museums
Bielsk Podlaski
The yellow town hall in the middle of the square in Bielsk Podlaski looks modest, but it has nearly 250 years and many lives behind it: it has been a court, a guardhouse, shops, offices and a library. Instead of the usual weather vane, a t…
Historic sites
Suwałki
In a forest on the north-eastern edge of Suwałki lie stone burial mounds almost two thousand years old. The Yotvingian Cemetery Reserve protects a burial ground used from the 2nd to the 5th century AD, one of the best-known archaeological…
Old towns & squares
Białystok
Kościuszko Market Square (Rynek Kościuszki) is the main square of Białystok (say "BYAH-wis-tok"), the capital of the Podlasie region in northeastern Poland, about 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Warsaw. This long, car-free promenade center…
Churches & monasteries
Augustów
The Sanctuary of Our Lady in Studzieniczna (roughly "stoo-dzhen-EECH-nah") is the most important pilgrimage site of the Augustów area in northeastern Poland: a wooden church and a white chapel on a former island in Lake Studzieniczne, abou…
Gardens
Krynki
Silvarium is a forest garden run by the foresters of the Krynki Forest District on the edge of the Knyszyn Forest in north-eastern Poland. It is neither a botanical garden nor a zoo: it shows what grows and lives in the forests of Podlasie…
Museums
Nowogród
The Kurpie Open-Air Museum in Nowogród (NO-vo-groot) is one of the two oldest open-air museums in Poland, founded in 1927. About 25 large wooden buildings and dozens of smaller structures stand on a high bank above the Narew River, and tog…
Museums
Białowieża
In a cottage built in 1836 and moved to Budy from near Kleszczele, a wooden chimney still works – according to its owners, the only one of its kind preserved and in use in Poland. The "Sioło Budy" open-air museum is a small farmstead on th…
Technical monuments
Augustów
On 9 June 1999 Pope John Paul II sailed through Przewięź Lock aboard the boat "Serwy" on his way from Augustów to Studzieniczna. This unassuming, hand-operated lock from 1826–1827 links Lake Białe Augustowskie with Lake Studzieniczne and s…
Technical monuments
Augustów
Swoboda Lock lies deep in the Augustów Forest, on a stretch of the Augustów Canal less than a kilometre long that links Lake Studzieniczne with Lake Ślepe. Built in 1826–1827, it worked for decades with steel gates and a concrete bridge –…
Hiking & tourist trails
Białowieża
In the Stara Białowieża forest tract, about a kilometre from Pogorzelce, wooden boardwalks lead between ancient oaks, each named after a Polish king, a Lithuanian grand duke or a queen. This is the Trail of the Royal Oaks and Lithuanian Du…
Historic sites
Białystok
The Jewish Heritage Trail in Białystok (pronounced "bee-AH-wih-stok") is a marked walking route through the places that tell the story of Jewish life in this northeastern Polish city: synagogues, industrialists' villas, old neighborhoods,…
Other
Kruszyniany
Kruszyniany is a village that Poland's Tatars received from King Jan III Sobieski, and the Tatarska Jurta is the best-known address for tasting their cuisine. The agritourism farm with a restaurant is run by Dżenneta Bogdanowicz and her hu…
Monuments & mounds
gmina Dubeninki
A few hundred metres from the houses of Bolcie, in the Wiżajny district, stands a granite pillar where three countries end: Poland, Lithuania and Russia (the Kaliningrad Oblast). The point is called “Wisztyniec” and it is the northernmost…
Landmarks
Krynki
Drivers arriving in Krynki for the first time often circle Plac Jagielloński a few times before finding the right exit. From the roundabout in the centre of this small town near the Belarusian border, no fewer than 12 streets radiate outwa…
Lakes
Czarna Białostocka
The Czapielówka reservoir lies in a forest clearing right next to Czarna Białostocka, and it was created almost entirely by community effort: for nearly 10 years local residents, foresters and soldiers worked on it together. Today it serve…
Lakes
Siemianówka
A railway embankment with two tracks – one standard-gauge and one broad-gauge – runs straight across the reservoir and ends at the Belarusian border. Siemianówka Reservoir (Jezioro Siemianowskie) is a dammed lake on the upper Narew River,…
Lakes
Siemiatycze
Siemiatycze does not have one reservoir but three: unnamed lakes on the Kamionka river that the town simply numbered 1, 2 and 3. The first opened in 1975, and today the water is ringed by a lifeguarded bathing area, a beach, sports pitches…
Castles
Tykocin
Tykocin Castle (pronounced roughly "tih-KO-cheen") stands on the banks of the Narew River in northeastern Poland. It is a modern reconstruction, raised on the foundations of King Sigismund Augustus's 16th-century fortress, which once held…