Attractions
Attractions in Poland
The sights worth building a day around.
Poland's attractions run from the medieval market squares of Krakow and Wroclaw to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, the memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Teutonic castle at Malbork. Each page below covers what the place is, how long to spend and how to get there, grouped by city.
All Attractions in Poland
Gdańsk
Green Gate (Zielona Brama)
The Green Gate is a Renaissance gateway from the 1560s that closes the eastern end of Gdansk's Long Market where it meets the Motlawa River, now home to a branch of the National Museum in Gdansk and a photography gallery.
Katowice
Silesian Park (Park Śląski)
Silesian Park is one of Europe's largest urban parks, spread over roughly 535 to 620 hectares on the Katowice-Chorzów border, with a zoo, planetarium, cable car and open-air museum inside its grounds.
Kazimierz Dolny
Granaries of Kazimierz Dolny
Tall Renaissance and Mannerist grain warehouses built in the 16th and 17th centuries, standing along the Vistula as a record of Kazimierz Dolny's years as a river trading port.
Kraków
Wawel Dragon Statue and Dragon's Den
A 6-metre bronze dragon at the foot of Wawel Hill that breathes real fire, standing beside the entrance to the Dragon's Den, a limestone cave beneath the castle.
Łódź
New Jewish Cemetery (Łódź)
A vast 19th-century Jewish cemetery in the Bałuty district of Łódź, holding monumental industrialists' tombs and the mass graves of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto.
Lublin
Grodzka Gate, NN Theatre Centre
A municipal cultural institution inside Lublin's 14th-century Grodzka Gate, dedicated to preserving the memory of the city's vanished Jewish community through exhibitions and one of Poland's largest oral-history archives.
Olsztyn
Castle Park (Podzamcze Park)
A landscaped riverside park below Olsztyn's Warmian Chapter Castle, set on the site of former water mills and revitalised in the late 2010s, near the neighbouring Central Park.
Poznań
Enigma Cipher Centre
An interactive museum in central Poznań telling the story of the three Polish mathematicians who first broke the German Enigma cipher, shown alongside a genuine Enigma machine and hands-on cryptography displays.
Sopot
Grodzisko Archaeological Open-Air Museum
An early-medieval fortified settlement on a wooded moraine hill above Sopot, now an open-air branch of the Archaeological Museum in Gdansk with reconstructed wooden huts and an exhibition of the area's oldest finds.
Toruń
Star House (Museum of Far Eastern Art)
A Baroque townhouse on Toruń's Old Town Market Square, crowned with a gilded star, that has housed Poland's first permanent collection of Asian art since 1970.
Warsaw
Holy Cross Church (Kosciol sw. Krzyza)
A major Baroque church on Warsaw's Royal Route, best known as the resting place of Frederic Chopin's embalmed heart, sealed inside a pillar of the nave.
Wrocław
District of Four Denominations
A compact quarter of Wrocław's Old Town where a Catholic church, a Lutheran church, an Orthodox cathedral and a synagogue stand within a few minutes' walk of each other, alongside bars, cafes and courtyards.
Poland fits a lot into one country: medieval market squares, a salt mine carved into underground chapels, the memorial at Auschwitz-Birkenau, mountain trails and a long Baltic coast. Seventeen places hold UNESCO World Heritage status, and most of the headline attractions cluster around the cities you are likely to base yourself in, so a first trip rarely means long transfers.
Where the big attractions are
Krakow has the densest cluster: the Main Market Square, laid out in 1257 and among the largest medieval squares in Europe, the underground Wieliczka Salt Mine, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial within a day trip. Warsaw rebuilt its Old Town from wartime rubble, Gdansk lines the Motlawa with tall merchant houses, and Wroclaw and Torun keep intact Gothic centres. The mountains around Zakopane and the lakes of Masuria add the outdoor side.
How to choose
Group attractions by the city you are staying in rather than chasing them across the map. Krakow, Warsaw and Gdansk each reward two or three days and put more sights within an easy day trip. For the classic sights that define the country, see the best viewpoints and our city guides.
Before you go
The busiest sites use timed entry, so book Wieliczka and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial ahead, especially in summer. Many state museums have one free day a week. Tickets are good value by European standards; our note on costs in Poland has the typical prices.
Attractions by city
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