Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Nature
Siedlec
A few dozen metres from a forest road near Złoty Potok stands a limestone outcrop pierced by an oval opening about 5 m wide and 4 m high. Twardowski's Gate (Brama Twardowskiego) is a natural rock arch in the Parkowe nature reserve, named b…
Fortifications
Opatów
Above the archway of the Warsaw Gate in Opatów a dragon holds a shield bearing the Odrowąż coat of arms – the emblem of the Szydłowiecki family, under whom Opatów flourished as a merchant town at a crossroads of trade routes. The gate is t…
Fortifications
Grodków
Grodków once had four town gates with towers. Two survive, and the Ziębice Gate, on the western side of the former ring of walls, is the one you can still walk through under a Gothic arch. The tower mixes two styles: the lower part is medi…
Historic sites
Warszawa
On the night of 19–20 August 1944 insurgents captured this building with the help of a fire pump: they forced thousands of litres of a crude oil and petrol mixture inside and set it alight. The PAST building at Zielna 39 is one of Europe's…
Other
Toruń
Philadelphia Boulevard (Bulwar Filadelfijski) is roughly 2 km of Vistula riverfront at the foot of Toruń's Old Town: Gothic walls, gates and granaries on one side, the broad river on the other. This is the best place to take in the panoram…
Coast
Gdynia
The Seaside Boulevard (Bulwar Nadmorski) in Gdynia is a promenade of about 1.5 km (1 mile) along the Bay of Gdańsk, running from the city-center beach to the beach at Redłowo beneath the wooded slopes of Kamienna Góra hill. It is one of th…
Nature
Kazimierz Dolny
Kazimierz Dolny built its wealth on the Vistula, and the riverside boulevard is the best place to understand how. From the promenade on the flood embankment you can see the parish church, the castle ruins and the tower on the hills, while…
Cities & towns
Szczecin
Before 1945 it was the main riverside street of the Old Town, where cargo was unloaded from ships. Today Piastowski Boulevard (Bulwar Piastowski), also known as the Sailors' Avenue (Aleja Żeglarzy), is the lower level of Szczecin's Oder wa…
Other
Elbląg
From the riverside quay below Elbląg's Old Town you can sail in two directions: south onto the Elbląg Canal, where boats overcome almost 100 m of height difference by riding on rail carriages over dry land, or north across the Vistula Lago…
Other
Bydgoszcz
The Brda River Boulevards (Bulwary nad Brdą) in Bydgoszcz are a riverside promenade of about 5 km (3 miles) running through the heart of the city. Along the way you pass half-timbered granaries, Mill Island, the Opera Nova and the famous s…
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…
Cities & towns
Warszawa
The Vistula Boulevards in Warsaw (Bulwary Wiślane, roughly "bool-VAH-rih vish-LAH-neh") are a riverside promenade stretching several kilometers along the left bank of the Vistula in central Warsaw, from below the Old Town past the Powiśle…
Historic sites
Łambinowice
On a former military training ground near Łambinowice – Lamsdorf in German – one camp followed another for more than seventy years: for French prisoners in 1870, for Entente soldiers in the First World War, and in the Second World War one…
Nature
Psary
The Ecological Education Centre in Góra Siewierska is a fenced park in Psary municipality (Będzin County), opened in April 2022. Its 1.7 ha hold a 15-metre viewing tower, a trail of boards on climate protection, several themed gardens and…
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
Orońsko
On the former estate of the painter Józef Brandt, in a park dotted with more than 100 sculptures, artists from around the world have been working since 1965. The Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko is a landscape park, contemporary art g…
Other
Lublin
The Centre for the Meeting of Cultures (Centrum Spotkania Kultur, CSK) is Lublin's largest arts venue and one of the most striking modern buildings in eastern Poland. Visitors come mainly for its free rooftop viewing terraces, a green roof…
Churches & monasteries
Bielsk Podlaski
Beneath the chancel of this wooden church lies its founder, who died more than five hundred years ago. In the 15th century Princess Wassa founded a church at Bielsk castle, and when the church was moved from Castle Hill into the town in 15…
Churches & monasteries
Ryboły
With its white brick walls and green domes, the Orthodox church in Ryboły carries a history that predates the 1596 Union of Brest. The present building was consecrated on 22 May 1879, but inside it keeps a much older treasure: the 17th-cen…
Churches & monasteries
Bielsk Podlaski
Set into the foundation of the south wall of this blue wooden church is a boulder carved with the date AD 1789 — the foundation stone of the present building. St Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church, known as the Old Sobor, stands at ul.…
Churches & monasteries
Kleszczele
The oldest building in Kleszczele was not built as a church. It is a former wooden bell tower from the 18th century that outlived the church it was built for and became a chapel itself. Poland's National Heritage Board describes it as one…
Churches & monasteries
Bystre
Three metal-clad domes with false lanterns rise above a Bieszczady meadow, well away from the main roads. The church of St Michael the Archangel in Bystre, in the Czarna district of the Bieszczady Mountains, was built in 1901–1902 and fell…
Churches & monasteries
Sanok
In Dobra (formerly Dobra Szlachecka) on the San River, in the Sanok municipality, a walled complex of two sacred buildings survives: a wooden tserkva from 1879 and an older gate tserkva in a tower. Poland's National Heritage Board describe…