The tripto catalogue lists 63 monuments, mounds and outdoor sculptures. You can see most of them in a quarter of an hour without a ticket, and the mounds also offer some of the best views over the city.
Kraków's four large mounds – Krakus, Wanda, Kościuszko and Piłsudski – are all in the catalogue. The Kościuszko Mound was built from soil brought from the battlefields where Kościuszko fought; next to it are a fort and the Kościuszko Museum. The Krakus Mound in Podgórze is the oldest mound in Kraków, with a free view of Wawel and the Old Town. The Piłsudski Mound on Sowiniec is the largest in Poland at 35 metres high. At the foot of Wawel, Bronisław Chromy's bronze Wawel Dragon breathes fire every few minutes. In Bydgoszcz, Jerzy Kędziora's sculpture "Crossing the River" balances on a rope above the Brda river; it was unveiled on 1 May 2004. In Łódź, the Gallery of Great Łódź Citizens is a set of six monuments on Piotrkowska Street, including Tuwim's Bench and Rubinstein's Piano.
Most places in this category are in the Silesian region (more than 10) and Lesser Poland (close to 10), followed by Masovia and Greater Poland. Kraków alone has eight.
In practice: 15–30 minutes is enough for a monument and about an hour for a mound, including the walk. Most are free and open around the clock; the Kościuszko Mound charges (34 zł, reduced 26 zł), with tickets sold only at the ticket office. With children, the Wawel Dragon and the trail of 18 bronze Hewelion lions in Gdańsk are great choices.
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Kościuszko Mound in Kraków (say "kosh-CHOOSH-ko") is a 34-meter earthen hill raised by hand in 1820–1823 in honor of Tadeusz Kościuszko — the Polish-Lithuanian general who fought in the American Revolutionary War and later led the 1794 upr…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Between 1934 and 1937 archaeologists dug right down to the base of Krakus Mound, looking for the grave of the legendary founder of Kraków. They found no grave. What they did find was just as intriguing: the mound has a carefully planned st…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Into this mound went soil from every First World War battlefield where Poles fought, and since 1981 soil from Second World War battlefields has also rested at its foot — hence its nickname, the "Grave of Graves". Józef Piłsudski Mound, on…
Hidden gemMonuments & mounds
Kraków
The dragon was originally meant to lie in the Vistula, partly submerged in the current. The idea was dropped when it became clear that rubbish carried by the river would pile up on the sculpture. So Bronisław Chromy's bronze Wawel Dragon w…
Monuments & mounds
Bydgoszcz
Above the Brda river, by the Jerzy Sulima-Kamiński Bridge, a young man holding a balancing pole has been walking a rope for over twenty years without ever falling. "Przechodzący przez rzekę" ("Man Crossing the River"), known locally as the…
Monuments & mounds
Łódź
On Piotrkowska Street you can sit on a bench next to the poet Julian Tuwim, lean on Arthur Rubinstein's piano, or pull up a chair at a table with the textile tycoons Karl Scheibler and Izrael Poznański. The Gallery of Great Łódź Citizens (…
Hidden gemMonuments & mounds
Waliszewo
At a crossroads near the village of Waliszewo stands a smiling innkeeper with a jug in his hand and a towel over his arm. He looks like a welcoming host – until you walk around him. The sculpture, known locally as Karczmarz z Waliszewa (th…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Between 1934 and 1937 archaeologists dug right down to the base of Krakus Mound, looking for the grave of the legendary founder of Kraków. They found no grave. What they did find was just as intriguing: the mound has a carefully planned st…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Kościuszko Mound in Kraków (say "kosh-CHOOSH-ko") is a 34-meter earthen hill raised by hand in 1820–1823 in honor of Tadeusz Kościuszko — the Polish-Lithuanian general who fought in the American Revolutionary War and later led the 1794 upr…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
In Mogiła, now part of Kraków's Nowa Huta district, stands a mound that nobody has fully explained. Wanda Mound was probably raised in the 7th–8th century, and since the Middle Ages it has been seen as the grave of the legendary daughter o…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Into this mound went soil from every First World War battlefield where Poles fought, and since 1981 soil from Second World War battlefields has also rested at its foot — hence its nickname, the "Grave of Graves". Józef Piłsudski Mound, on…
Hidden gemMonuments & mounds
Kraków
The dragon was originally meant to lie in the Vistula, partly submerged in the current. The idea was dropped when it became clear that rubbish carried by the river would pile up on the sculpture. So Bronisław Chromy's bronze Wawel Dragon w…
Monuments & mounds
Warszawa
This 31-metre hill in Czerniaków was piled up from the rubble of destroyed Warsaw, and for years maps simply called it "Rubbish Hill". Today the Warsaw Uprising Mound (Kopiec Powstania Warszawskiego), crowned by a giant Fighting Poland anc…
Monuments & mounds
Bydgoszcz
Above the Brda river, by the Jerzy Sulima-Kamiński Bridge, a young man holding a balancing pole has been walking a rope for over twenty years without ever falling. "Przechodzący przez rzekę" ("Man Crossing the River"), known locally as the…
Monuments & mounds
Sobótka
On large granite rocks at the foot of Mount Ślęża, porcelain plaques show the photos and achievements of Poland's finest cyclists. The Cycling Walk of Fame in Sobótka is — as the wroclaw.pl portal points out — the only such avenue in the c…
Monuments & mounds
Turzańsk
Silent Memorial is an open-air gallery of portraits scattered across villages and painted directly onto the boards of old barns and sheds. Sanok-born artist Arkadiusz Andrejkow started the project in 2017 in the Subcarpathian region, and t…
Monuments & mounds
Gdańsk
The Hewelion lion figures in Gdańsk are a free city trail of small bronze lions hidden around the Baltic port city, from the historic Main Town to the beach, the zoo and even the airport. Each lion wears a different costume – sailor, pilot…
Monuments & mounds
Łódź
On Piotrkowska Street you can sit on a bench next to the poet Julian Tuwim, lean on Arthur Rubinstein's piano, or pull up a chair at a table with the textile tycoons Karl Scheibler and Izrael Poznański. The Gallery of Great Łódź Citizens (…
Monuments & mounds
Sokółka
At the source of the Łosośna river, in the village of Malawicze Górne near Sokółka, lies a boulder crowned with an Islamic crescent. It was funded by Arsłan Mucha to commemorate the Tatar Mucha family, for whom – as the carved inscription…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Eros Bendato in Kraków is the giant bronze head lying on its side in the Main Market Square (Rynek Główny, roughly "RIH-nek GWOOV-nih"), right next to the Town Hall Tower. Created by the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj, it is one of the most…
Monuments & mounds
Cedynia
On a hill above the Oder valley, right by the village of Osinów Dolny, a 15-metre eagle spreads its wings for take-off. It commemorates the Battle of Cedynia on 24 June 972, one of the earliest victories of Poland's first historical ruler,…
Monuments & mounds
Będzin
Będzin's highest hill – St Dorothy's Hill, known locally as Dorotka (382 m) – has more nicknames than many a mountain: "Golden Hill", "Olympus of Zagłębie", "Jasna Góra of Zagłębie" (after Poland's most famous shrine). On the top stands a…
Monuments & mounds
Warszawa
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw (Grób Nieznanego Żołnierza) is Poland's most important national memorial: a symbolic grave for all soldiers who died for the country, set beneath the surviving arcade of the Saxon Palace on Piłsuds…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
In Kraków, people have been raising earth mounds for over a thousand years – from mysterious tumuli linked to the legendary founder Krak and his daughter Wanda to memorials to Kościuszko, Piłsudski and Pope John Paul II. Together the five…
Monuments & mounds
Przemyśl
On Zniesienie hill, which rises above Przemyśl to the south, stands a man-made mound that legend says holds the grave of a Tatar khan. Historians date it to the late 9th century and link it with the presence of the Magyars, and from its to…
Monuments & mounds
Piekary Śląskie
The Liberation Mound is the highest point of Piekary Śląskie and one of the key monuments of interwar Upper Silesia. It was raised over five years, in 1932–1937, to mark the 250th anniversary of King John III Sobieski's march to Vienna and…
Monuments & mounds
Chałupki
On Zabełkowska Street in Rudyszwałd, set against the wall of a roadside building, stands a short, stocky sandstone cross. It bears no name and no date, yet it is one of the oldest monuments in the village: a stone trace of medieval law, un…
Monuments & mounds
Żywiec
In the castle park in Żywiec, next to the Habsburg Palace, a bronze Archduchess Alicja Habsburg sits on a marble bench – a Swede who chose Poland and served in the wartime underground under the code name "Alicja". The life-size sculpture w…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
One evening in 1916 Hugo Steinhaus was strolling through Kraków's Planty park when he suddenly overheard the words "Lebesgue integral". Intrigued, he approached two young men discussing mathematics – and so discovered Stefan Banach, the fu…
Monuments & mounds
Busko-Zdrój
In front of the Busko Municipal Cultural Centre, on a concrete bench shaped like the neck of a guitar, sits a bronze Wojciech Belon with his instrument — the bard of the Ponidzie region and founder of the band Wolna Grupa Bukowina. A phras…
A standard ticket costs 34 zł, reduced 26 zł, and family tickets 68 and 85 zł. Entry is free on 4 February, 24 March and 15 October. Tickets are sold only at the ticket office.
The Piłsudski Mound on Sowiniec in Kraków – 35 metres high and 111 metres across. Entry is free.
In the Silesian region (more than 10) and Lesser Poland (close to 10). Kraków has the most of any city – eight.
Updated: · Opening hours and prices can change — check the attraction page before you go.