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
Zamość
Old Lublin Gate (Stara Brama Lubelska)
The oldest of Zamość's fortress gates, built in the 1580s and later sealed shut, standing on the northern line of the Old Town defences.
Białowieża
Catholic Church of St Theresa of the Child Jesus
A Roman Catholic parish church in Białowieża village, built in the early 20th century in a neo-Renaissance style and known for its wooden altar furnishings.
Częstochowa
Częstochowa Philharmonic (Bronisław Huberman Philharmonic)
Częstochowa's main concert hall, built on the foundations of the city's New Synagogue and named after the locally born violinist Bronisław Huberman.
Gdańsk
St. Bridget's Church
A rebuilt medieval church in Gdańsk's Old Town that holds the world's largest amber altar and carries deep ties to the Solidarity movement.
Katowice
Giszowiec
Giszowiec is an early 20th-century garden-city housing estate in southeast Katowice, built for miners as detached cottages set among gardens and tree-lined streets.
Kazimierz Dolny
Church of St Anne and the Holy Ghost
A small stone hospital church on Lubelska Street in Kazimierz Dolny, built in the Lublin Renaissance style and consecrated in 1671.
Kraków
Plac Nowy (New Square)
Plac Nowy is the social centre of Kraków's Kazimierz district, a trapezoidal 19th-century square built around a round market hall whose windows now sell the city's famous zapiekanki.
Łódź
Botanical Garden and Palm House (Palmiarnia), Łódź
Łódź's Botanical Garden is one of the largest in Poland, pairing 67 hectares of themed outdoor plantings with a modern Palm House that holds the country's tallest palms.
Lublin
Union of Lublin Monument
A cast-iron obelisk on Litewski Square marking the 1569 Union of Lublin, the treaty that joined Poland and Lithuania into a single commonwealth.
Olsztyn
Lake Dlugie (Jezioro Długie)
Lake Dlugie is a narrow lake in western Olsztyn where motorboats are banned, valued for its clean water and quiet lakeside recreation.
Poznań
Raczyński Library (Biblioteka Raczyńskich)
Poland's first public library, opened in 1829 on Poznań's Freedom Square, known for its long classicist colonnade and one of the country's most valuable manuscript collections.
Toruń
Ethnographic Museum and Open-Air Park, Toruń
An ethnographic museum in central Toruń that pairs indoor folk-art galleries with a two-hectare open-air park of relocated wooden buildings from rural northern Poland.
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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