Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Old towns & squares
Bielsko-Biała
The Market Square in Bielsko-Biała (roughly "BYEL-skoh BYAH-wah") is the heart of the city's Old Town, a sloping 80 × 60 m square on a hilltop where the medieval town of Bielsko was founded in the early 14th century. Lined with restored 18…
Old towns & squares
Cieszyn
Cieszyn Market Square is a rectangular square of around 6,800 m², with the St Florian fountain at its centre and a classicist town hall on its south side. It is lined with arcades and townhouses whose history goes back to the 16th century,…
Old towns & squares
Koziegłowy
In the middle of the market square in Koziegłowy, low stone walls rise out of the paving like a small ruin. They are the foundations of the old town hall, uncovered by archaeologists and deliberately left on show in the new surface. The re…
Old towns & squares
Olsztyn
High above Olsztyn's market square, on a six-metre pole, balances "W nieskończoność" ("Infinity"), a sculpture by Jerzy Kędziora, while a glass case nearby holds a 1:100 scale model of the castle. The original is visible from the square: t…
Old towns & squares
gmina Pilica
The trapezoid-shaped square in Pilica keeps the layout laid out when the town was chartered at the end of the 14th century – streets still leave from its corners exactly where the old roads to Kraków, Lelów, Żarnowiec and Sławków began. In…
Old towns & squares
Przyrów
For more than a century and a half Przyrów was officially a village, yet its market square never stopped looking like a town's. Researchers studying small towns stripped of their status by the Tsarist reform of 1869–1870 ranked it second o…
Old towns & squares
Pszczyna
Every day at noon a bugle call rings out over the market square in Pszczyna, but it is not a solemn fanfare: it is based on a cheeky local folk song. The square, stretched from east to west, is one of the largest in southern Poland and kee…
Old towns & squares
Racibórz
Racibórz Market Square (Racibórz: rah-CHEE-boorsh) is the heart of one of the oldest towns in Upper Silesia, the historic industrial and cultural region of southern Poland. It is the natural place to start if you are looking for things to…
Old towns & squares
Siewierz
For almost three and a half centuries this square was the centre of a duchy ruled by the bishops of Kraków. Siewierz Market Square was laid out when the town received its charter in 1276, and it still keeps its medieval plan, with streets…
Old towns & squares
Skoczów
Skoczów Market Square is an almost square plaza with streets running out from its corners – the surviving medieval layout of a town that the chronicler Jan Długosz called the first town on the upper Vistula. It is dominated by a late-Baroq…
Old towns & squares
Sławków
Sławków Market Square is the heart of a former town of the Bishops of Kraków, which grew rich on lead and silver and on the trade route from Kraków to Wrocław. In the square stands a town hall of 1905, and on one side the wooden Austeria,…
Old towns & squares
Tarnowskie Góry
The Market Square in Tarnowskie Góry is considered one of the finest town squares in Upper Silesia. It is an irregular trapezium 108 m long – the gwarkowie, the town's ore miners, built their houses next to mine shafts rather than along a…
Old towns & squares
Ustroń
Ustroń's market square is not a medieval plaza lined with town houses but a modern space in front of the town hall, remodelled in 2008. Where a car park and taxi rank once stood, there are now benches, a fountain and a small stage under an…
Old towns & squares
Wisła
Wisła has no classic medieval market square. Its heart is Bogumił Hoff Square (plac Bogumiła Hoffa), shaped in the 1930s when this Beskid village was turning into a fashionable resort. The square is named after the man who "discovered" Wis…
Old towns & squares
Woźniki
Woźniki received market rights around 1270, making it one of the oldest towns in Upper Silesia. Its market square keeps its medieval layout, protected as a heritage site together with the houses lining it. On the square stand a town hall b…
Old towns & squares
Żywiec
Żywiec's market square was probably laid out in the first half of the 15th century, when the people of flood-prone Old Żywiec moved to the foot of Grojec hill. The regular, four-sided square has survived fires, floods and wars, and today,…
Monuments & mounds
Tarnowskie Góry
Miners holding lamps are Tarnowskie Góry's answer to the dwarfs of Wrocław. Since 2013 the town has unveiled a new outdoor sculpture of a 'gwarek' every year, and by December 2024 there were twelve of them – from the Market Square to outly…
Monuments & mounds
Ruda Śląska
Wrocław has its dwarfs, Katowice its beboks, and Ruda Śląska has cats. Several cast cats in an identical pose sit in different parts of the city, made from melted-down keys that residents brought to the town hall. More than 100 kilograms o…
Fortifications
Węgierska Górka
In the woods on the slope above Cisiec, a short walk from the centre of Węgierska Górka, stands a moss-covered concrete block with dark gun embrasures. This is "Waligóra", a large bunker of the September 1939 defence line – an artillery ca…
Nature
Mstów
According to local legend, this limestone rock above the Warta River is a pair of lovers turned to stone by the girl's mother. Skała Miłości, the "Rock of Love" in Mstów, a dozen or so kilometres from Częstochowa, is about 15 m high and is…
Other
Racibórz
Next to the oldest church in Racibórz lies a small square with a fountain and benches. It is named after Monsignor Stefan Pieczka, for many years parish priest of the church next door – a man locals remember as someone who could talk to an…
Gardens
Chudów
The Silesian Botanical Garden in Mikołów (pronounced roughly "mee-KOH-woof") is one of the largest botanical gardens in Poland, covering about 117 hectares (290 acres) on the southern edge of the Katowice metropolitan area. It occupies a f…
Lakes
Świętochłowice
In the northern part of Świętochłowice, where the districts of Lipiny and Chropaczów meet, lies a small valley that locals simply call Ajska. Its largest body of water is Ajska Pond, ringed by reeds and by rust-coloured spoil heaps left by…
Lakes
Złoty Potok
Amerykan is the largest pond in Złoty Potok and the easiest starting point for the Wiercica Valley in the Polish Jura. From the water a short walk takes you to the Krasiński manor, and within an hour you reach the springs and limestone roc…