Things to do in Wałbrzych
Wałbrzych is a former mining town that found a new identity after the collieries closed: Książ Castle, one of the largest in Poland, towers above it, and the Palm House in Lubiechów invites visitors all year round. The town is also a good base for the Wałbrzych and Owl Mountains.
Map of attractions in Wałbrzych
All 12 places on one map: see what is close together and plan your route.
All attractions (12)
Castles
Książ Castle
Wałbrzych
Książ Castle (pronounced roughly "kshonzh") in Wałbrzych is the largest castle in Lower Silesia and the third-largest in Poland, after Malbork and Wawel. Perched on a rocky spur above a wooded gorge in southwestern Poland, it was home to t…
120–240 min
Hidden gemLandscape parks
Książ Landscape Park
Wałbrzych
Książ Castle stands on a rocky spur above the gorge of the Pełcznica River, and it is this mountain-like landscape within the city limits of Wałbrzych that Książ Landscape Park protects. Its 3,155 hectares hold deep ravines, beech woods, t…
Free entry
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Old Mine Science and Art Centre, Wałbrzych
Wałbrzych
The last cart of coal came up from the Julia mine on 20 September 1996, and less than two decades later the site reopened as one of Poland's largest industrial heritage centres. At the Old Mine (Stara Kopalnia) in Wałbrzych you are often g…
Hidden gemCastles
Old Książ Castle in Wałbrzych
Wałbrzych
For most of the 20th century Old Książ (Stary Książ) was thought to be a sham ruin – a folly invented for the Hochberg family's romantic park. Only archaeological research in the 1990s confirmed that beneath the 18th-century "stage set" li…
Free entry
Churches & monasteries
Guardian Angels Church in Wałbrzych
Wałbrzych
The Guardian Angels Church in Wałbrzych (say "VAHW-bzhikh"), formally the Collegiate Church of Our Lady of Sorrows and the Holy Guardian Angels, is the main Catholic church of this former coal-mining city in Lower Silesia, southwest Poland…
Churches & monasteries
Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in Wałbrzych
Wałbrzych
Wałbrzych's oldest church is also one of its smallest. The little Church of Our Lady of Sorrows on Plac Kościelny holds a Pietà before which pilgrims have prayed for centuries. Since 3 May 2010 Our Lady of Sorrows has been the official pat…
Museums
Porcelain Museum in Wałbrzych
Wałbrzych
The Porcelain Museum in Wałbrzych (roughly "VAH-wb-zhikh") is a small but rewarding museum in Lower Silesia, southwest Poland. Set in the neoclassical Alberti Palace in the city center, it displays more than 10,000 pieces of Silesian and E…
Gardens
Wałbrzych Palm House
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
Palm House in Wałbrzych (Lubiechów)
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.…
Fortifications
Książ Castle Underground
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…
Old towns & squares
Wałbrzych Market Square
Wałbrzych
On top of a corner house on Wałbrzych's Market Square sits an anchor – in a mountain town hundreds of kilometres from the sea. It symbolises the old trading links between Wałbrzych (German: Waldenburg) and lands overseas. The town's oldest…
Free entry
Viewpoints
Borowa Observation Tower
Wałbrzych
For years Borowa was a summit with no view – and an underrated one too: the neighbouring Chełmiec was included in the Crown of Polish Mountains because, when it was measured, the instruments had been placed on a tower. Only a correction sh…
Free entry