107 attractions in the Holy Cross region, including Wielopolski Palace in Pińczów, Sabat Krajno Amusement and Miniature Park and Spa Park in Busko-Zdrój.
Palaces
Pińczów
At the foot of Castle Hill in Pińczów stands the elegant Baroque-Classicist palace of the Wielopolski family, built in 1773–1799. It was put up instead of restoring the castle on the hill above – a castle of which the medieval chronicler J…
Amusement parks
Krajno-Zagórze
Sabat Krajno Amusement and Miniature Park is a year-round family attraction in the Holy Cross Mountains (Góry Świętokrzyskie) of central Poland, about 20 km (12 miles) east of Kielce. It combines a hillside walk past more than 60 miniature…
Gardens
Busko-Zdrój
Busko-Zdrój owes its fame to sulphurous waters, and its green heart is the Spa Park — a fenced bath garden covering 16 ha in the south of the town. At its centre stand Henryk Marconi's classicist Baths of 1836, while the new western part o…
Monuments & mounds
Sandomierz
The Ring in Sandomierz is one of the town's most unusual monuments: an openwork wrought-iron setting holding a huge cabochon of striped flint, in which you can see the letter "S" from Sandomierz's logo. The structure weighs 80 kg and has s…
Old towns & squares
Wiślica
The name Plac Solny – Salt Square – recalls that Wiślica was once a town of merchants, not just of royal assemblies. Here, at the foot of King Casimir the Great's Gothic collegiate church, stands the glass pavilion of the Archaeological Mu…
Viewpoints
Święta Katarzyna
The quartzite sandstone blocks below the viewing gallery on Łysa Góra formed more than 500 million years ago and are among the oldest rocks exposed at the surface anywhere in Poland. The platform – officially the "Viewing Gallery on the St…
Caves
Opatów
Beneath Opatów's market square runs a labyrinth that merchants dug into the soft loess over the centuries to store wine, herring, hides, spices, wax and salt. Today it is the Prof. Zbigniew Strzelecki Underground Tourist Route: about 500 m…
Landmarks
Sandomierz
The Underground Tourist Route in Sandomierz (say "san-DOH-myesh") is a 470-meter (1,540-foot) walk through medieval and Renaissance merchants' cellars hidden beneath the town's Market Square, reaching 12 meters (40 feet) below the cobbles.…
Churches & monasteries
Rytwiany
The Golden Forest Hermitage in Rytwiany (Pustelnia Złotego Lasu; say "rit-VYAH-nih") is a former Camaldolese hermit monastery hidden in the Rytwiany Forest of southeastern Poland. A Baroque church, rows of little hermit houses and a gate i…
Other
Sandomierz
The oldest engravings and paintings show Sandomierz from the Vistula — and that is exactly the view you get from the wooden boat "Sandomierka". It is a replica of a traditional raftsmen's dubas run by the Sandomierka Foundation; it takes u…
Historic sites
Wiślica
Beneath and beside the Gothic collegiate church in Wiślica lie the foundations of three Romanesque churches, and in the crypt the Orants Slab – a gypsum floor with incised figures from around 1175–1177, unique worldwide. The relics are sho…
Nature
Kielce
Kadzielnia (pronounced "kah-JEL-nyah") in Kielce is a former limestone quarry right inside the city, now a geological nature reserve with dramatic rock walls, viewpoints, an underground cave route, a large open-air amphitheater and a zip l…
Castles
Klimontów
A village road in Ossolin drops into a deep gully, with a stone arch spanning it overhead. That is all that remains of one of the grandest residences in the Sandomierz region – the castle of Grand Chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński. The story of…
Old towns & squares
Opatów
Opatów's Market Square (pronounced roughly "oh-PAH-toof"), officially Obrońców Pokoju Square, is a long, narrow square at the heart of one of the oldest towns in southeastern Poland's Świętokrzyskie region. An arcaded town hall lines the s…
Old towns & squares
Sandomierz
Sandomierz Market Square (Rynek in Sandomierz, pronounced roughly “san-DOH-myesh”) is the sloping heart of one of Poland’s oldest and best-preserved towns. A Gothic town hall crowned with a lacy Renaissance parapet stands in the middle, pa…
Landmarks
Busko-Zdrój
The opening of this building on 1 June 1836 is regarded as the birth of the spa town of Busko-Zdrój. The former Baths (Łazienki) were designed by Henryk Marconi (Enrico Marconi), a Warsaw architect of Italian origin, who modelled them on R…
Other
Sandomierz
Loess gorges, the Vistula and endless orchards: the Sandomierz Apple Trail turns this landscape into a route to explore, from fruit farms with their own juices and preserves, through heritage rooms and craft workshops, to vineyards and far…
Other
Sandomierz
"Sandomierz wine is at times better than Moravian," wrote the 16th-century botanist Marcin of Urzędów. Tax records suggest that as many as 150 hectares of vineyards may then have grown within the bounds of old Sandomierz. After centuries o…
Churches & monasteries
Kałków
Amid the fields of the Świętokrzyskie region stands a building that looks like a medieval castle, 33 metres high. This is the Golgotha, the heart of the sanctuary in Kałków-Godów and a kind of national pantheon: inside are chapels commemor…
Churches & monasteries
Pińczów
Pińczów has two faces: its Renaissance market square and Mirów – once a separate little town founded in 1592 by Zygmunt Myszkowski. In Mirów stands the Church of the Visitation with its Franciscan friary, home to the miraculous image of Ou…
Churches & monasteries
Pacanów
Pacanów is best known for the cartoon goat Koziołek Matołek, but the little town also has one of the oldest church pedigrees in Poland. The Basilica of St Martin – also the Sanctuary of the Dying Lord Jesus – stands on the site of a church…
Museums
Chęciny
The Tokarnia open-air museum (Tokarnia is pronounced roughly "toh-KAR-nyah"), officially the Ethnographic Park of the Museum of the Kielce Countryside, is one of the largest heritage villages in Poland. Spread over more than 65 hectares in…
Nature
Busko-Zdrój
On the edge of Wełecz Forest, a few kilometres from Busko-Zdrój, grows a Scots pine that looks as if it has walked out of the woods on stilts. Its roots lift the trunk about 3 metres off the ground, and several people can stand beneath the…
Old towns & squares
Sandomierz
Sandomierz Old Town (say "san-DOH-myesh") is one of Poland's loveliest historic centers: a hilltop town above the Vistula River with a sloping Market Square, a red-brick Gothic Town Hall crowned by a Renaissance parapet, a medieval city ga…