Paulite Monastery of Jasna Góra
The Kraków−Częstochowa Upland
Poland’s spiritual capital began with the arrival of the Paulite order from Hungary in 1382, who named the 293m hill in the western part of the city …
Must-see attractions in Małopolska
Bełżec
This subdued memorial and museum bears witness to the 600,000 Jews killed here in 1942 by the Nazis as part of their ‘Operation Reinhard’, the German plan…
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The Kraków−Częstochowa Upland
The oldest part of the Paulite Monastery of Jasna Góra contains the revered Black Madonna. The picture is unveiled to soaring music and prayer at 6am and…
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Małopolska
The Great Market Sq is the heart of Zamość's attractive Old Town. This impressive Italianate Renaissance square (exactly 100m by 100m) is dominated by the…
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Małopolska
Kielce was the property of the Kraków bishops from the 12th century through to 1789. This palace was built (from 1637 onwards) as one of their seats and…
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Małopolska
This museum of military hardware and the city's fortifications is housed in three separate areas along the city's western bastions. Start at the facility…
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Sobibór
For several decades, the Sobibór memorial was a simple collection of monuments and a tiny museum. It was moving in its simplicity, the paucity of visitors…
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Benedictine Monastery of Holy Cross
Małopolska
This hilltop monastery got its name from the segment of Jesus’ cross that was supposedly kept here. The abbey is at the top of Łysa Góra (595m). It has a…
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The Kraków−Częstochowa Upland
If you can only do one thing in Ojców National Park, visit this 14th-century castle, one of the best-preserved castles in the upland. The castle was…
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Małopolska
Built between 1360 and 1382, this massive church has retained much of its Gothic exterior, apart from the baroque facade added in the 17th century. The…
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Małopolska
The city’s fascinating synagogue was built around 1620 and served as the Jewish community’s main house of worship until WWII, when it was shuttered by the…
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Małopolska
Situated within the 16th-century Janowiec Castle, this museum has a few rooms given over to temporary exhibitions and contemporary art, as well as a…
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Małopolska
Over the centuries, Kazimierz Dolny had a significant Jewish population, and in the decades leading up to WWII as much as half the population was Jewish…
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Małopolska
This 1635 townhouse built for the Celej family is a branch of the Vistula River Museum. The focus is on art and several rooms on the upper floor are…
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Małopolska
The town hall was built between 1639 and 1651, and features were added and extended over the years: its curving stairway came in 1768. Zamoyski didn’t…
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Małopolska
The Holy Cross Church in the Benedictine Monastery of Holy Cross was rebuilt several times over the years. The present-day church and its bright white…
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Małopolska
The quintessential example of Sandomierz’ underrated assets, the medieval Długosz House (Dom Długosza) was built in 1476 for Poland’s first historian, Jan…
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Małopolska
The minute village of Ujazd (oo-yahst), some 35km west of Sandomierz, is home to arguably Poland’s most bizarre ruin. Krzyżtopór Castle was commissioned…
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Małopolska
The park, which covers an area of 79 sq km, was a nature reserve for more than 350 years as part of the Zamoyski family estate. Today, it’s home to a…
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Małopolska
This national park covers around 60 sq km and protects the Świętokrzyski (Holy Cross) Mountains, Poland’s oldest mountainous geological formation (and…
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Małopolska
About 500m southwest of the Old Town is the Rotunda – a ring-shaped fort 54m in diameter surrounding a circular yard. The rotunda was built in the 1820s…
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Open-Air Museum of the Kielce Village
Małopolska
This 80-hectare open-air museum of traditional architecture is located in the village of Tokarnia, about 20km from Kielce. It’s a pleasant half-day outing…
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Małopolska
A plaque signed by former president Lech Wałęsa identifies the site of a post-WWII pogrom on 4 July 1946 committed by Poles against Jews who had survived…
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Małopolska
The city’s star attraction is an array of chalk passages hewn by hand 12m below ground. The chalk mine began in medieval times. By the 16th century, the…
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Małopolska
Two of the row of iconic and colourful Armenian houses on the northeast side of the Rynek shelter the Zamość museum, with intriguing displays such as a…
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Małopolska
This former monastery houses a museum containing modern Polish paintings, natural history displays and temporary exhibitions. Other outlets of the museum…
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Małopolska
The cathedral was built by Morando between 1587 and 1598 as a votive offering and mausoleum for the Zamoyskis. The exterior changed dramatically in the…
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Małopolska
The Gothic parish church presiding over the Rynek was built in the mid-14th century, and remodelled when Renaissance styles swept Poland in the 16th…
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Małopolska
Uphill from the parish church, a path to the right leads to the Hill of Three Crosses, where the namesake crosses stand to commemorate victims of the…
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Małopolska
One of the most popular outings is the short hop to this outdoor folklore museum about 7km from the centre. Furnished interiors showcase styles from the…
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Małopolska
On the eastern edge of the Old Town is the best surviving bastion from the original city walls. You can take a group walking tour (English text is…
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Małopolska
Radom was a significant Jewish settlement, and the Jewish community here numbered around 30,000 just before WWII (about a quarter of the population)…
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Małopolska
A 40-minute guided tour (in Polish) leads through a chain of 30-odd cellars tidily connected over 500m beneath the Old Town. The cellars – originally used…
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Małopolska
Above the parish church along ul Zamkowa is what's left of Kazimierz Dolny’s castle. Originally built in 1341 as a stronghold against the Tatar incursion,…
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The Kraków−Częstochowa Upland
A small landmark near the Stary Rynek marks the deportation zone, the Umschlagplatz, from where tens of thousands of Jews were transported to their deaths…
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Małopolska
Housed in a grand 18th-century collegiate building on the Rynek, this museum displays a collection of art by local painters, including its namesake Jacek…
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Małopolska
Kielce's cathedral looks nothing like the Romanesque church first erected here in 1171; it was rebuilt in the 17th century and dressed in baroque…
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Małopolska
About 4km east of the city centre is what remains of the former Jewish cemetery. The Germans destroyed the cemetery and used the grave markers as paving…
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The Kraków−Częstochowa Upland
Just outside the park boundaries, Wierzchowska Górna Cave is in the village of Wierzchowie, 5km southwest of Ojców. At 950m long, Wierzchowska is the…
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The Kraków−Częstochowa Upland
About 300m north of Ojców is the frequently photographed Chapel on the Water, which was fashioned in 1901 from the bathhouse that originally stood in its…
