Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
National parks
Święta Katarzyna
Świętokrzyski National Park (say "shvyen-toh-KSHIH-skee"; often translated as Holy Cross Mountains National Park) protects the highest ridge of Poland's oldest mountain range, near the city of Kielce. Its trademarks are the gołoborza (goh-…
Landmarks
Klimontów
Four white Ionic columns, a triangular pediment and stairs climbing to the upper floor from both sides – the synagogue in Klimontów looks more like a Neoclassical country house than a house of prayer. It is one of the town's most distincti…
Other
Jędrzejów
The Cistercian Trail (Szlak Cysterski) is a cultural route linking the medieval abbeys of the Cistercian order across Poland – from Oliwa and Pelplin near Gdańsk, through Greater Poland, to Lower Silesia, Lesser Poland and the Świętokrzysk…
Nature
Pińczów
The Nida is the longest river in the Świętokrzyskie region and one of the gentlest kayak routes in Poland. The waymarked trail from Brzegi to Nowy Korczyn is 92.7 km long and runs through the Ponidzie area past the castle in Sobków, Pińczó…
Technical monuments
Święta Katarzyna
Long before industrial Silesia, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth smelted its iron along the rivers of the northern Kielce region. The industrial heritage trail of Świętokrzyskie Province links the remains of this Old Polish Industrial Re…
Landmarks
Sandomierz
The Needle's Eye (Ucho Igielne), also called the Dominican Gate, is a narrow passage through Sandomierz's old defensive walls, leading west from the Old Town towards the Dominican friary at St James's Church. It is the only surviving wicke…
Castles
Ujazd
Krzyżtopór Castle (say "KSHISH-toh-poor") in the village of Ujazd is the vast ruin of a 17th-century noble residence in Poland's Świętokrzyskie region, about 12 km from the town of Opatów. Built for the magnate Krzysztof Ossoliński as a pa…
Castles
Piekoszów
Jan Aleksander Tarło, Voivode of Lublin, spent so much on this residence that, according to accounts, he had to sell 30 villages. His wife, Princess Anna Czartoryska, is said to have demanded to be driven to her new home by sleigh – althou…
Castles
Stopnica
In the western part of Stopnica, in the Ponidzie region, stands a royal castle founded around 1350 by Casimir the Great. Over more than 600 years it served as a royal stopover, a Calvinist stronghold, a Baroque palace, the seat of the dist…
Castles
Szydłów
Szydłów Royal Castle stands on an escarpment sloping down to the valley of the little Ciekąca river, built into the walls of the town known as the Polish Carcassonne. Its Knights' Hall from around 1400 is the best-preserved medieval reside…
Nature
Busko-Zdrój
On the north-eastern edge of Busko-Zdrój, by ul. Stawowa and right next to the village of Łagiewniki, the spa town's houses give way to the gypsum hills of Ponidzie. Zimne Wody ("Cold Waters") is a cluster of hills cut by small valleys, fi…