Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Churches & monasteries
Kamieniec Ząbkowicki
The former Cistercian church in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki is 70 m long and 24 m high, and its aisles all rise to the same height – a Gothic hall church, a rarity among Cistercian buildings. Inside stands one of the tallest wooden altarpieces in…
Churches & monasteries
Staszów
The stone church in Kurozwęki was already standing around 1470, and from 1487 it served both the parish and the Canons Regular of the Lateran. Its greatest treasures are in the Chapel of the Five Wounds on the south side – late Renaissance…
Churches & monasteries
Łódź
The Church of the Assumption towers over Kościelny Square in Łódź's Old Town – its two slender towers of red, unrendered brick are visible from afar. It is the church of the city's oldest parish, for almost five hundred years the only Cath…
Churches & monasteries
Niemodlin
When conservators dismantled the Baroque high altar of the church in Niemodlin, Latin epitaphs and painted busts of apostles from the early 14th century appeared on the chancel wall. Among them is a rhyming four-line verse about a metre lo…
Churches & monasteries
Nowy Wiśnicz
The twin-towered façade of the Church of the Assumption dominates the eastern side of the market square in Nowy Wiśnicz, even though the church itself is set back as much as 100 m from the building line. Built around 1620, it is the parish…
Churches & monasteries
Oświęcim
The oldest church in Oświęcim stands just north of the market square, and its tall clock tower defines the Old Town skyline – it is clearly visible, for example, as you approach the bridge from the west. The Church of the Assumption is whe…
Churches & monasteries
Praszka
For generations the people of Praszka told each other that their church stood on wooden piles driven into marshy ground. Only a survey in 2000 disproved the legend: the stone foundations rest on natural ground, and any piles could only hav…
Churches & monasteries
Racibórz
The parish church on the Market Square in Racibórz is one of the oldest parish churches in Upper Silesia and the only one in the town that has kept the features of early Gothic. Behind its west front hides an unusual addition – the Polish…
Churches & monasteries
Toruń
St. Mary's Church in Toruń, properly the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a vast Gothic former Franciscan church on the north-west corner of the Old Town Square. It has no tower at all, yet inside it opens into a hal…
Churches & monasteries
Zbrosławice
The Church of the Assumption in Zbrosławice near Tarnowskie Góry is a Gothic-baroque church from the 15th century and the Sanctuary of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At its heart is a 43-centimetre wooden figure of the Virgin a…
Churches & monasteries
Gołąb
From a distance it looks like a three-aisled basilica, but that is an illusion: the low "side aisles" are really a thickening of the walls that hides gun-ports. The church in Gołąb combines an Italian order, Netherlandish decoration and th…
Churches & monasteries
Babice
In the centre of Babice, less than a kilometre from Lipowiec Castle, stands a pale church with a tall front tower. Its parish was founded as early as 1337, and the present building hides layers from several periods: a medieval chancel, a B…
Churches & monasteries
Blizne
All Saints' Church in Blizne (say "BLEEZ-neh") is a 15th-century Gothic wooden church in southeastern Poland, set on a small rise among old trees and surrounded by a complete group of historic timber parish buildings. Since 2003 it has bee…
Churches & monasteries
Brenna
The attic of All Saints Church in Górki Wielkie is home to one of the most valuable bat colonies in the region, and behind the church, in the cemetery on the Kępka Prochaskowa hillock, lies the writer Zofia Kossak. The church itself is one…
Churches & monasteries
Kórnik
All Saints' Church tells the second half of Kórnik's story of powerful families. The Górkas, Działyńskis and Zamoyskis lived in the castle, and here are their tombs: Renaissance monuments to the governors of Poznań and a Neoclassical tomb…
Churches & monasteries
Limanowa
In the tower of the wooden church in Łososina Górna hangs the bell "Andrzej", cast in 1520, the same age as the famous Zygmunt bell in Kraków's Wawel Cathedral. It survived both world wars, as neither the Austrians nor the Germans took it…
Churches & monasteries
Poręba
The red-brick tower with its sharp spire is the highest point in Poręba. Construction of this Gothic Revival church began at Pentecost 1901 – hence its dedication to the Descent of the Holy Spirit, recalled by the dove above the main entra…
Churches & monasteries
Kazimierz Dolny
The Church of the Annunciation and the Franciscan (Reformati) Monastery in Kazimierz Dolny is a hilltop religious complex above the Market Square, known for its covered oak staircase and a venerated 400-year-old painting of the Annunciatio…
Churches & monasteries
Goczałkowice-Zdrój
St Anne's little church in Goczałkowice-Zdrój was meant to stand somewhere else, out in the fields. According to local legend, the building materials mysteriously moved overnight to the present site three times – and that is where the chur…
Mountains & peaks
gmina Stronie Śląskie
Kowadło (989 m above sea level) is a border summit in the southern part of the Golden Mountains (Góry Złote), rising above the village of Bielice in the Stronie Śląskie municipality. It lies within the Śnieżnik Landscape Park and represent…
Other
Brenna
"He who has sheep has all he wants" – that is the name of one of the workshops at the Goat Farmstead (Kozia Zagroda) in Brenna, and it sums the place up well. In the centre of the village, hosts Beata and Rafał have reconstructed a highlan…
Mountains & peaks
Tylmanowa
The summit of Koziarz is wooded, and the trail even bypasses it – yet it is one of the best viewpoints in the Beskid Sądecki. Since 2015 an over 20-metre wooden tower with an enclosed staircase has stood on the top (943 m), so even people…
Landmarks
Narew
Three villages in the Narew valley – Trześcianka, Soce and Puchły – lie just a few kilometres apart and together form the Land of Open Shutters (Kraina Otwartych Okiennic), a cultural trail of wooden architecture with carved window frames,…
Other
Kraków
In 1898 Antoni Mateczny was digging a well for his new house at the end of Kalwaryjska Street. Late in the day water with a strong, sulphurous smell gushed out – the workers were alarmed, but Mateczny, a regular visitor to Karlsbad, immedi…