Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Nature
Gruszków
The Colorful Lakes (Kolorowe Jeziorka, say "ko-lo-RO-veh yeh-ZHOR-ka") in the Rudawy Janowickie mountains are four small ponds filling old pyrite mine pits above the village of Wieściszowice in Lower Silesia, southwestern Poland. Each has…
Other
Ruda Sułowska
The Colourful Carp Trail winds through the Barycz Valley, on the border of Lower Silesia and Greater Poland – a region famous for its 800-year tradition of carp farming. The route is marked by 30 three-dimensional carp figures painted by a…
Historic sites
Świdnica
On 12 November 1989, in the farmyard at Krzyżowa, Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl exchanged the sign of peace during the Mass of Reconciliation. The gesture symbolically closed the darkest chapter…
Fortifications
Walim
In 1944 the construction sites in the Owl Mountains were allocated 28,000 tonnes of steel and cement – as much as the Third Reich set aside each year for air-raid shelters for its entire civilian population. Riese (German for "giant") was…
Fortifications
Walim
The Włodarz Complex (roughly "VWOH-dahsh") in Poland's Owl Mountains is one of three publicly accessible sections of Project Riese ("Giant"), Nazi Germany's vast and still mysterious underground construction program of 1943–1945. It is the…
Technical monuments
Kowary
The Podgórze Uranium Mine (pod-GOO-zheh) in Kowary is a former uranium mine in Poland's Giant Mountains where ore really was extracted in the 1950s — and where you now explore the tunnels by the light of miners' lamps. Highlights include a…
Technical monuments
gmina Stronie Śląskie
The Kletno Uranium Mine (say "KLET-no") is an underground tourist route in a former adit on the slopes of the Śnieżnik Massif in the Sudetes, southwest Poland. Between 1948 and 1953, under Soviet supervision, uranium ore was mined here for…
Technical monuments
Złotoryja
Złotoryja takes its name from gold, panned here as early as the Middle Ages, and its 13th-century Latin name was Mons Aurum, Gold Hill. The Aurelia mine lets you go underground on the slope of St Nicholas Hill and see what the local hunt f…
Churches & monasteries
Wałbrzych
The Guardian Angels Church in Wałbrzych (say "VAHW-bzhikh"), formally the Collegiate Church of Our Lady of Sorrows and the Holy Guardian Angels, is the main Catholic church of this former coal-mining city in Lower Silesia, southwest Poland…
Churches & monasteries
Międzylesie
Above the nave floats a gilded boat with a mast and sail – it is the pulpit from which sermons were preached. The Corpus Christi Church in Międzylesie is also physically linked to the neighbouring castle: the lords of the estate walked to…
Churches & monasteries
Kłodzko
Cross the Gothic bridge over the Młynówka and two towers with onion domes rise ahead – the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary with its Franciscan friary, the main landmark of Sand Island (Wyspa Piasek). The church stands on an island between…
Churches & monasteries
Jelenia Góra
On Sunday 1 August 1745 at 2 pm, lightning struck the tower of the Church of Grace in Jelenia Góra. It ran down a metal rod holding the canopy over the pulpit and reached the preacher – Pastor Gottlob Adolph was killed in the middle of his…
Churches & monasteries
Legnica
St. Mary's Church in Legnica (pronounced "leg-NEE-tsah") is the oldest surviving church in this Lower Silesian city and one of the oldest in all of Silesia. Its story begins in the 12th century, and according to the medieval chronicler Jan…
Churches & monasteries
Lubin
Lubin's oldest church took more than a century and a half to build and survived the war only as a shell. The Gothic Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa stands right by the old town walls, and inside you will find a Renaissance pulpit, star v…
Churches & monasteries
Wałbrzych
Wałbrzych's oldest church is also one of its smallest. The little Church of Our Lady of Sorrows on Plac Kościelny holds a Pietà before which pilgrims have prayed for centuries. Since 3 May 2010 Our Lady of Sorrows has been the official pat…
Churches & monasteries
Złotoryja
Złotoryja holds the oldest town charter in Poland, granted in 1211 by Duke Henry the Bearded, and its parish church is only a little younger. The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is one of only about twenty town parish churches in…
Churches & monasteries
Stolec
The Gothic church in Stolec, the largest village in the Ząbkowice Śląskie municipality, has two towers and, on its high altar, a painting by the Baroque master Michael Willmann. The church was first recorded in 1251, and its present form d…
Churches & monasteries
Środa Śląska
The outer walls of St Andrew's are still those of a late-Romanesque basilica from the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries — one of the oldest buildings in Środa Śląska. Above them rises a Gothic chancel of 1378–1388 with a vault attributed…
Churches & monasteries
Lubomierz
On ul. 1 Maja, at the edge of old Lubomierz, a pink church with a small roof turret stands behind a stone wall with a gate. This is the cemetery church of St Anne from 1669, surrounded by one of the oldest surviving cemeteries in the area.…
Churches & monasteries
Ząbkowice Śląskie
Everyone comes to Ząbkowice Śląskie for the Leaning Tower, and hardly anyone looks inside the church it once served as a bell tower. Yet the Gothic Church of St Anne, founded by Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg, holds a Renaissance tomb of…
Churches & monasteries
Międzylesie
In the cemetery on the eastern edge of Międzylesie stands a white church with a tall tower topped by an onion dome and lantern. It is older than the town's main church in its present form – it was built in 1491 – and although it survived t…
Churches & monasteries
Bolków
Next to the pulpit in St Hedwig's Church in Bolków, a 13th-century stone corbel juts out from the wall: three men's heads, each with a different expression. It is one of many details in a church that has stood at the top of the market squa…
Churches & monasteries
Międzygórze
The Stations of the Cross in this church were donated in the 18th century as votive offerings asking for rain, which had not fallen for three months. The wooden Church of St Joseph stands in the very centre of Międzygórze, above the road t…
Churches & monasteries
Nowa Ruda
The brick Church of St Nicholas, with two slender turrets by the chancel and a tall tower, is the largest building in central Nowa Ruda. It is about 72 metres long and has kept a unified neo-Gothic interior. Yet there are older things here…