Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Museums
Kraków
The Under the Eagle Pharmacy (Apteka pod Orłem, roughly "AP-teh-kah pod OR-wem") in Kraków is one of the most moving places to visit in Podgórze, the district south of the Vistula where the Nazis sealed off the city's Jewish ghetto in 1941…
Mountains & peaks
Jastrzębik
Bacówka nad Wierchomlą is a small PTTK mountain hut in the Sądecki Beskids, set in a broad clearing at 887 m above sea level on the trail between Runek and Pusta Wielka. From the clearing you can see the Radziejowa range and, on clear days…
Fortifications
Olkusz
The tower in Olkusz is a reconstructed half-tower with a stretch of defensive wall, standing in a corner of the Old Town right next to St Andrew's Basilica. It is the best-preserved and most legible trace of the medieval fortifications of…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
The Dominican Basilica in Kraków – the Basilica of the Holy Trinity on Stolarska Street – is a soaring Gothic brick church just a few minutes from the Main Market Square. Dominican friars have been based here since 1222, and the church is…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
The Franciscan Basilica in Kraków – formally the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, on All Saints' Square (plac Wszystkich Świętych) – is one of the oldest churches in the Old Town and a must for anyone who loves Art Nouveau. Its interior…
Mountains & peaks
Klimkówka
The name "Beskid Gorlicki" was coined by pre-war hikers, for whom the town of Gorlice was the main gateway to the mountains between Krynica and Dukla. Geographers no longer use it, but the landscape hasn't changed: this is the western part…
Landscape parks
Kraków
Bielany-Tyniec Landscape Park (Bielańsko-Tyniecki Park Krajobrazowy, roughly "byeh-LAHN-skoh ti-NYETS-kee PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee") is a green belt along the Vistula in western Kraków, combining the Benedictine abbey in Tyniec, the Cama…
Amusement parks
Kasina Wielka
On the slopes of Śnieżnica (1,006 m) in the Island Beskids, an hour's drive from Kraków, bikes ride up on a six-seater chairlift and come down four trails ranging from smooth flow to black downhill. Bike Park Kasina is the summer side of t…
Old towns & squares
Kraków
The Kraków Christmas Market 2026 opens on the Main Market Square on 27 November 2026 and runs until 6 January 2027. Wooden stalls go up between the Cloth Hall, St Mary's Basilica and the Mickiewicz Monument, and Galician mulled wine is pou…
Nature
Zabierzów
The Bolechowice Gate is a pair of limestone rocks 25–30 m high that form a natural entrance to the Bolechowicka Valley, about 15 km from Kraków. On the east side rises the Abazy Pillar (Filar Abazego), on the west the Penitents' Pillar (Fi…
Landmarks
Kraków
St. Florian's Gate in Kraków (Polish: Brama Floriańska, "BRAH-mah flo-RYAN-skah") is the medieval city gate and tower that marks the northern entrance to the Old Town at the top of Floriańska Street. Together with a surviving stretch of th…
Other
Stary Sącz
Next to the wall of the Poor Clares' convent in Stary Sącz stands a carved wooden gateway you would hardly expect in a small town in southern Poland. It is a Székely gate – the traditional gate of the Székelys (Szeklers), a Hungarian-speak…
Other
Kraków
The Vistula Boulevards (Bulwary Wiślane, roughly "bool-VAH-ri veesh-LAH-neh") are Kraków's historic riverside embankments, now the city's favorite place to stroll, cycle and picnic with Wawel Castle as the backdrop. They line both banks of…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
The John Paul II Centre "Do Not Be Afraid!" in Kraków is a pilgrimage and cultural complex in the Łagiewniki district (say "wah-gyev-NEE-kee"), built around the octagonal Sanctuary of St. John Paul II, a museum devoted to the Polish pope a…
Other
Pleśna
The Local Produce Centre in Rzuchowa was built on the site of an old carriage house beside the manor barn, at the heart of one of the most extensive surviving manor-and-park estates in the Małopolska region. It is run by farmers from the G…
Museums
Oświęcim
The Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oświęcim (osh-VYEN-cheem), with the Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue, tells the story of the town before 1940 – the town its Jewish residents called Oshpitzin. The center brings together the Jewish Museum, t…
Churches & monasteries
Owczary
The Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Owczary (say "ov-CHAH-ri") is one of the oldest Lemko tserkvas – wooden churches of the Eastern rite – in Poland, built in 1653 in a quiet valley of the Low Beskids near Gorlice. Since 2…
Churches & monasteries
Powroźnik
St. James's Church in Powroźnik (say "pov-ROZH-neek") is a former Lemko tserkva – an Eastern-rite wooden church – regarded as the oldest wooden tserkva in the Polish Carpathians. It stands just outside the spa towns of Krynica-Zdrój and Mu…
Churches & monasteries
Tylicz
This dark red wooden church with three onion domes has stood in Tylicz's cemetery since 1743. It is a Lemko church with an unusual layout – two side chapels off the nave, a feature found elsewhere in the region only at Milik. Inside is an…
Churches & monasteries
Brunary
St. Michael the Archangel's Church in Brunary Wyżne (say "broo-NAH-ri VIZH-neh") is an 18th-century former Lemko Greek Catholic tserkva – a wooden church of the Eastern rite – in the Low Beskids of southern Poland, now the Roman Catholic p…
Churches & monasteries
Kwiatoń
St. Paraskeva's Church in Kwiatoń (say "KFYAH-tone") is a former Lemko Greek Catholic tserkva – a wooden church of the Eastern rite – in the Low Beskids of southern Poland. Experts regard it as the model example, and arguably the most beau…
Churches & monasteries
Muszyna
The wooden church in Złockie does not look like a typical Lemko church. Instead of three towers in a row, it has a cross-shaped plan and a tall octagonal drum with a dome – a pattern foreign to the Lemko region but popular in Russia and th…
Churches & monasteries
Krynica-Zdrój
On the road from Grybów to Krynica-Zdrój, in the valley of the Mostysza stream, stands a church darkened by its shingles and crowned with three silvery onion domes. This is the former Greek Catholic church of St Michael the Archangel in Po…
Museums
Rabsztyn
This whitewashed wooden cottage from 1862 is where Antoni Kocjan was born – the designer whose gliders made up half of all those built in Poland in the 1930s, and during the war a key figure in uncovering Germany's V-2 rockets. The house w…