Silesianka Lookout Tower Trail

Silesianka is a cross-border trail of lookout towers and viewing platforms in the Silesia Euroregion, on the Polish–Czech borderland of Silesia. Today it links 34 sites — according to the project, 11 on the Polish and 23 on the Czech side — with 42 planned in the end. It is not a single route to walk over a weekend but a network of points from which you can build your own trip, by bike, by car or on foot.

Towers of wood, steel and stone

The trail's great strength is its variety. There are new steel structures, wooden towers in the woods, platforms in parks and old bastions brought back to life. The highest view is in Ostrava: Bolt Tower, built in 2014–2015 on top of blast furnace no. 1 in the Lower Vítkovice area, has a viewpoint at 75 m and a café. From the 85.6 m tower of Ostrava's New Town Hall you look over the city from a terrace at 73 m. In Opava you can climb the Hláska tower — in good weather the Praděd peak is visible from the top.

On the Polish side

• Lookout tower by the Border Meanders of the Oder in Zabełków (26.9 m) — a view of the freely meandering river, a Natura 2000 site and a good spot for birdwatching.
• Pogrzebień tower — a steel pyramid opened in 2019, 19.72 m high with three platforms. On clear days you can see the Beskids, the Sudetes, the Jeseníky with Praděd and the Szarlota spoil heap.
• Knights' Bastion (Romantic Tower) in Wodzisław Śląski — a neo-Gothic tower from 1867–1868, burnt in 2004 and reopened as a viewpoint in 2021 thanks to the Silesianka project.
• The castle tower in Tworków (21.5 m) and the platform in the Moravian Gate Arboretum in Racibórz (12 m), plus viewpoints in Pietrowice Wielkie, Mszana, Grabówka and Głubczyce.

Did you know?

In the Opawskie Mountains, on the summit of Barania Kopa (416 m above sea level), another Silesianka tower is being built — 25 m high and modelled on the Pogrzebień tower. The hill is sometimes called the Czech Hill: after the war the Polish–Czechoslovak border ran across it, and since 1958 the whole hill has belonged to Poland. Bilingual trail boards stand by the towers, and walkers can collect stamps in a trail booklet.

Tripto tips

Plan your trip around one area: for example Zabełków, Tworków and Pogrzebień in the Racibórz district, or Ostrava with Bolt Tower and the town hall. Some sites are open all year, others usually from mid-March to the end of November; entry may be free or paid, and most car parks are free. Check the opening hours of each tower before you go, especially outside the season.