Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Palaces
Turew
From the palace at Turew, General Dezydery Chłapowski reshaped the landscape of the whole area. A Napoleonic officer, a general of the November Uprising and a farmer trained in England, he planted belts of trees along the fields that still…
Palaces
Witaszyce
Turn off the S11 expressway at Witaszyce, a few kilometres from Jarocin in southern Greater Poland, and you find an unexpected combination: a Neo-Baroque palace of 1899 that now houses a hotel, and in the park next to it Poland's only Muse…
Palaces
Kołaczkowo
In Kołaczkowo in Greater Poland, on the road from Września to Pyzdry, stands a Neoclassical palace that Władysław Reymont bought in 1920. The writer spent the following years here from spring to autumn and still owned the estate when, on 1…
Gardens
Poznań
The Poznań Palm House (Palmiarnia Poznańska, say "pahl-MYAR-nya") in Wilson Park is the largest palm house in Poland and one of the largest in Europe: more than 4,600 m² under glass, about 1,100 plant species and an aquarium with some 170…
Gardens
Poznań
In the Sołacz district, between Wielkopolska Avenue and the Bogdanka valley, lies a park best known for its avenue of silver maples. Adam Wodziczko Park covers more than 7 hectares and has over 2,000 trees of 54 species, and its patron was…
Landscape parks
Turew
This park protects not a forest or a mountain but farmland, or more precisely a network of tree belts between the fields. General Dezydery Chłapowski began planting them almost 200 years ago. The result, between Kościan and Śrem, is an agr…
Landscape parks
Pobiedziska
Promno Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Promno; say "PROM-no") is a pocket of lakes, oak and pine woods and glacial hills just east of Poznań, the capital of the Greater Poland region. At around 13 square miles it is small, yet it holds f…
Landscape parks
Murowana Goślina
Puszcza Zielonka Landscape Park (say "POOSH-chah zhyeh-LON-kah") is a large protected forest just northeast of Poznań, one of the biggest cities in western Poland. It covers more than 12,000 hectares of woodland, glacial lakes and quiet fo…
Museums
Konin
The Mikroskala Model Park in Konin is a hall full of miniature worlds: from Columbus's caravels and the sinking Titanic to the Moon landing, dinosaurs and Star Wars. Open since May 2013, it displays more than 50 models, some of which visit…
Gardens
Kalisz
The City Park in Kalisz (pronounced roughly "KAH-leesh") is a leafy riverside park in central Poland whose history goes back to 1798, making it one of the oldest public parks in the country. In the 19th century it was considered Poland's m…
Gardens
Piła
As late as the mid-1970s, the island between two arms of the Gwda river was a marsh that locals called Gardolina. Today it's the Island Park, about 10 hectares of greenery in the very centre of Piła that the town itself calls "the heart of…
Amusement parks
Antonin
By the Górecznik pond, in the woods on the edge of the Barycz Valley, is a Family Adventure and Education Park where animal enclosures, nature trails and a summer play zone are all arranged around one pond. The complex at ul. Wrocławska 7…
Landscape parks
Poznań
Every day at noon a narrow-gauge steam locomotive in Rataje Park puffs out clouds of smoke and sounds its whistle – though it never leaves. It is the party piece of the Środa County Railway open-air museum, set in the heart of Poznań's sec…
Amusement parks
Rogowo
Zaurolandia is a family amusement park on Lake Rogowskie in the Pałuki region, opened on 28 April 2007. Its main draw is a 2-kilometre walking route lined with almost 80 life-size dinosaurs, and the whole park covers about 20 ha. More than…
Landscape parks
Poznań
In the 1950s a parachute tower more than 30 m high loomed over the Sołacz ponds – and until 1956 the park was even named after Stalin. It is hard to picture today: Sołacz Park is a calm, English-style landscape park in the Bogdanka valley,…
Nature
Poznań
Where clay was dug for almost a century to make bricks for a growing Poznań, reeds now reflect in still water and terns circle above the ponds. Szachty – or simply Glinianki, "the clay pits" – are around 40 ponds in the Junikowo Stream val…
Landscape parks
Poznań
A park in Poznań's Łazarz district once had a statue of a US president sculpted by Gutzon Borglum – the same artist who carved the presidents' faces into Mount Rushmore. The Germans destroyed the statue, but Wilson Park still tells an inte…
Technical monuments
Gniezno
The Gniezno Roundhouse (Parowozownia Gniezno) is a historic steam locomotive depot next to the main railroad station in Gniezno, western Poland, and one of the largest surviving depot complexes in Europe. Two vast fan-shaped engine sheds,…
Lakes
Gołuchów
The sandy beach at ul. Leśna 1 is the lifeguarded bathing area of the Gołuchów Tourism and Sports Centre (GOTiS) on the reservoir formed by the Trzemna river. The water has an excellent record: in four consecutive official classifications…
Nature
Gołuchów
In the woods next to the Gołuchów arboretum live European bison, Polish konik horses, fallow deer and wild boar – on more than 20 ha of fenced land, part of which is a meadow used as bison pasture. The Animal Display Enclosure has been her…
Historic sites
Imiołki
For most of the year the Lednica Fields are quiet meadows above Lake Lednica, with a white steel fish on the hill. Once a year, on the first Saturday of June, up to 100,000 young people gather here for the Lednica 2000 Youth Meeting – one…
Monuments & mounds
Gniezno
The Monument to Bolesław the Brave stands on Lech Hill, on the square in front of Gniezno Cathedral and opposite the Primate's Palace. The bronze figure of Poland's first crowned ruler, wearing a crown and resting on a sword, is 4.75 m tal…
Monuments & mounds
Jarocin
A boot more than two metres tall, with a high leg, stands by one of Jarocin's busier junctions and tells you at once where you are. The "glan" – the heavy leather boot worn by the punks who flocked to Jarocin's concerts – became the symbol…
Monuments & mounds
Poznań
The Poznań June 1956 Monument, known locally as the Poznań Crosses (Poznańskie Krzyże), stands on Adam Mickiewicz Square in the city's Imperial District, next to the Imperial Castle. Two joined steel crosses, 19.5 m and 21 m tall and bound…