Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Palaces
Chocianów
Above the Baroque body of Chocianów Palace rises a massive square tower with a Rococo helm roof and lantern. It is the only part to survive from the Gothic castle of the dukes of Świdnica-Jawor, around which the Redern family built their 1…
Palaces
Miękinia
On the Bystrzyca river, a dozen or so kilometres west of Wrocław, a tower and jagged gables rise out of the riverside woods: this is Gałów Palace. Today it is a complete ruin, yet the crumbling façade still carries the coats of arms of its…
Palaces
Milicz
Maltzan Palace in Milicz (say "MEE-leech") is a late-18th-century Neoclassical residence in Lower Silesia, about an hour's drive north of Wrocław, whose domes and columned portico recall the royal palaces of Potsdam. It sits in a large Eng…
Palaces
Oleśnica Mała
Oleśnica Mała Palace (say "oh-lesh-NEE-tsah MAH-wah") is a Baroque residence in a quiet Lower Silesian village about 40 km southeast of Wrocław, built on the site of the first Knights Templar commandery in Silesia. The Knights Hospitaller…
Palaces
Żmigród
In July 1813, in the palace at Żmigród – then the German town of Trachenberg – King Frederick William III of Prussia, Tsar Alexander I and Sweden's Crown Prince Charles John, formerly Napoleon's marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, agreed on…
Palaces
Wojanów
Wojanów Palace (say "voy-AH-noof") is a white neo-Gothic residence with corner turrets on the Bóbr River in the Jelenia Góra Valley, Lower Silesia, at the foot of the Karkonosze (Giant Mountains). It's part of the "Valley of Palaces and Ga…
Gardens
Wałbrzych
The Wałbrzych Palm House (Wałbrzych is pronounced roughly "VAH-wb-zhikh") is a historic glasshouse built in the early 20th century by the aristocratic owners of nearby Książ Castle. Under its glass dome grow date palms and more than 250 pl…
Gardens
Wałbrzych
The Wałbrzych Palm House (say "VAHW-bzhikh") in the Lubiechów district is a historic glasshouse built by Prince Hans Heinrich XV von Hochberg, lord of nearby Książ Castle, for his wife, the British-born socialite Daisy, Princess of Pless.…
Gardens
Świdnica
Fountains, a rose garden, a pond with footbridges and a stone smith from Germanic mythology: Central Park in Świdnica is the town's best-known green space. It covers more than 9 ha and lies just south of the Old Town, so it fits easily int…
Amusement parks
Kobierzyce
Every autumn the park around a medieval tower house in Ślęza, just outside Wrocław, turns into a garden of light. The illumination park, now run under the name Lumina Park, follows a 1.5-kilometre route past more than 200 light installatio…
Landscape parks
Pilchowice
Bóbr Valley Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Doliny Bobru, roughly "PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee doh-LEE-nee BOH-broo") protects the winding valley of the Bóbr River between Jelenia Góra and Lwówek Śląski in Lower Silesia, southwestern Pola…
Landscape parks
Sokołowsko
Sudety Wałbrzyskie Landscape Park (Park Krajobrazowy Sudetów Wałbrzyskich, roughly "PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee soo-DEH-tuv vahw-BZHIS-kikh") is a quiet mountain park south of the city of Wałbrzych in Lower Silesia, southwestern Poland. It…
Gardens
Legnica
Legnica City Park (Park Miejski, pronounced "park MYAY-skee") is the oldest and largest park in this Lower Silesian city: about 58 hectares of greenery right next to the Old Town, stretching along the Kaczawa River and the Młynówka mill st…
Amusement parks
Kowary
The Lower Silesian Monuments Miniature Park in Kowary (ko-VAH-rih) is an open-air display of 1:25 scale models of the castles, palaces, churches and old towns of southwest Poland. In one stroll you can see Książ Castle, Vang Stave Church,…
Gardens
Polanica-Zdrój
In Polanica-Zdrój chess is more than a game on a park bench. Since 1963 the spa town has hosted the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial, a tournament that has attracted world champions, and the Spa Park has a corner dedicated to the royal game. The…
Gardens
Wrocław
Szczytnicki Park (roughly "shchit-NEE-tskee") is Wrocław's grand green lung: about 250 acres (100 ha) of old trees, ponds and lawns right next to the UNESCO-listed Centennial Hall. Laid out in 1783, it was one of the first English-style la…
Gardens
Lubin
A Tyrannosaurus among century-old oaks, white-tailed eagles and capercaillies in aviaries, and next to them a wild riverside forest that nobody touches with an axe. Wrocławski Park is the oldest and most valuable park in Lubin in Lower Sil…
Gardens
Kudowa-Zdrój
Just beyond the pond at the western end of the Spa Park in Kudowa-Zdrój runs the border with the Czech Republic – that is how close to the border the green heart of this Sudeten spa town lies. The historic park, covering 12.97 hectares, wa…
Gardens
Polanica-Zdrój
The Spa Park in Polanica-Zdrój is home to 19 tree species from North America – among them Weymouth pine, silver maple and Douglas fir – and 15 of its trees are protected natural monuments. Almost 13 hectares of greenery right in the centre…
Gardens
Szczawno-Zdrój
Every day at noon and at 20:00, Henryk Wieniawski's "Polish Song" rings out from the Anna Tower above the Spa Park in Szczawno-Zdrój – the violinist is the patron of the park and of a festival named after him. Founded in 1812, it is the to…
Museums
Wrocław
The Four Domes Pavilion in Wrocław is a modernist exhibition hall by German architect Hans Poelzig that now houses the Museum of Contemporary Art, a branch of the National Museum in Wrocław. Standing next to the UNESCO-listed Centennial Ha…
Gardens
Wrocław
The Pergola and Multimedia Fountain in Wrocław (say "VROTS-wahf") is one of the city's favorite free things to do: a vine-covered, half-oval colonnade from 1913 wraps around a pond where Poland's largest multimedia fountain has danced to m…
Other
Siedlęcin
A timber building with a terrace resting on stone pillars hangs on the edge of a cliff above Lake Modre, at the foot of Wieżyca hill in the Bóbr valley. Perła Zachodu ("Pearl of the West") has stood here since 1927, and its history has a l…
Fortifications
Wałbrzych
Half a kilometre of concrete corridors and halls cut 50 metres beneath Poland's third-largest castle – and nobody knows to this day how big the whole complex really is. The Książ Castle Underground is an unfinished Nazi German project from…