141 Best Sights in Poland

The historic entrance to the old town of Gdańsk is marked by this magnificent Renaissance gate, which marks the beginning of the so-called "Royal Route," along which the king passed through the city on his annual visit. The gate is adorned with the flags of Poland, Gdańsk, and the Prussian kingdom. Its builder, Hans Kramer of Dresden, erected it as a link in the chain of modern fortifications put up to frame the western city borders between 1574 and 1576. The brick gate was renovated and decorated in 1588 by Flemish sculptor Willem van den Blocke, whose decorations you can still see today.

The eastern entrance to the medieval city of Gdańsk is at the water's edge. Construction, supervised by Regnier of Amsterdam and Hans Kramer of Dresden, lasted from 1568 to 1571. This 16th-century gate also doubled as a royal residence. Unfortunately, the name no longer fits: the gate is now painted brown.

Just behind the Brama Wyżynna, the Golden Gate was the second through which the king passed on the Royal Route. This structure dates from 1614, and combines characteristics of both the Italian and Dutch Renaissance. It was built to the design of Abraham van den Blocke. The stone figures (by Pieter Ringering) along the parapet (on the Wały Jagiellońskie facade) represent allegories of the city's citizens' virtues: prudence, justice, piety, and concord. On the Długa street facade there are allegories of peace, freedom, fortune, and fame—the pursuits of Gdańsk city over the centuries. Next to the Golden Gate squats the house of the St George's Brotherhood, erected by Glotau between 1487 and 1494 in the late-Gothic style.

If you are interested in modern art, you will find it in the somewhat unlikely setting of the 18th-century Zamek Ujazdowski, reconstructed in the 1980s. The castle hosts a variety of temporary exhibitions by artists from Poland and all over the world. It is home to the most comprehensive permanent collection of Polish contemporary art found anywhere in the country (still growing, by its very nature). You can easily spend a day there, catching a lecture, a movie (in the summer outdoor cinema), or lunch (at a cafeteria or a more fancy restaurant within the castle gates). The bookshop is well stocked with art publications and souvenirs.

This magnificent Gothic building, built in the early 15th century to house the Jagiellonian University's law students, lies on one of Kraków's oldest streets. It's still part of the university, housing both the art history and law departments, but the charming courtyard is open to the general public. Hiding in the courtyard, you can find a striking sculpture by Igor Mitoraj, titled "Luci di Nara" ("The Lights of Nara"), which the artist donated to the university.

Jagiellonian University was another innovation of Kazimierz the Great. Established in 1364, it was the first university in Poland and one of the earliest ones in Europe. The Collegium Maius is the oldest surviving building of the university, though historians are undecided where the very first one stood. Jagiellonian's most famous student, Nicolaus Copernicus, studied here from 1491 to 1495. The first visual delight is the arcaded Gothic courtyard with a well and a musical clock. The clock plays the University anthem, while figures of royals and professors make a passage through two little doors below it every two hours from 9 to 5.

Don't miss lovely college gardens, through the passage to the left. On the second floor, the museum and rooms are a must for all visitors to Kraków. They can only be visited on a guided tour (English-language tours are at 1 pm, but call in advance to confirm and make a reservation). On the tour you see the treasury, assembly hall, library, and common room. The museum includes the so-called Jagiellonian globe, the first globe to depict the American continents.

The neoclassical town hall, built in 1828, houses the Częstochowa Museum, which opened here in 1967 and has 10 satellite pavilions around town. The main building's permanent collection is composed of an exhibition on the history of Częstochowa, featuring photographs from 1845–1918 and the works of contemporary local painters. One of the museum's outposts is the House of Poetry, a permanent exhibition on Polish poet Halina Poświatowska, and another covers the archaeology in the region. Temporary exhibitions have included one giving the history of dental care and another on rare books.

The 19th-century painter Jan Matejko was born and died in this house, which now serves as a museum for his work. Even if you don't warm to his painting, Matejko was a prodigious collector of everything from Renaissance art to medieval weaponry, and this 16th-century building is in wonderful condition.

The Loitz family was a mighty banking family, who traditionally sympathized with Polish kings, sometimes with unfortunate results. They never recovered the borrowed sums for a Royal Navy project of King Zygmunt August, due to his sudden death. Nowadays, an art school occupies their town house, which was built in the style of the late Gothic.

A mecca for all Fryderyk Chopin lovers, the composer's birthplace is a small 19th-century manor house, still with its original furnishings and now a museum dedicated to telling the story of the composer's life. When Chopin was born here on February 22 (or March 1), 1810, his father was a live-in tutor for the children of the wealthy Skarbek family. Although the family soon moved to Warsaw, Fryderyk used to return many times for holidays, and the house—not to mention the sounds and sights of the Mazovian countryside—is said to have influenced him in his early years.

The manor is surrounded by a beautifully landscaped park that was planted in 1930s and designed by Franciszek Krzywda Polkowski. In summer, from May through September, concerts are held on the house's terrace every Sunday at noon and 3 pm. On weekdays, at noon, there are presentations of young artists and talented students playing Chopin.

If you are driving, take Route 2 (E30) west out of Warsaw, and at Sochaczew, turn north on Route 580. The house is also reachable by PKS bus and by private minibuses running from Warsaw's main bus station, but several companies also offer guided tours that include both Żelazowa Wola and Nieborów, the estate of the Radziwiłł family (and sometimes Arkadia Park as well).

This colourful sculpture was created in 1975 by one of the most famous Polish sculptors, Władysław Hasior. It was originally planned to sit near the castle, but it caught fire just as it was supposed to be inaugurated. Years later, forgotten and falling apart in the park, the artwork was saved by fans from Wrocław, who collected and "arrested" the broken parts and agreed to give them back on the condition that the town of Szczecin would take better care of the masterpiece.

Anti-Communists love the irony of this once-despised symbol of oppression; for a decade after the Communist fall, until 2001, it was the seat of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (today, it's the Centrum Bankowo-Finansowe). This is not a tourist sight in a strict sense, but it is worth a peek for its monumental—even oppressive—architecture, a remainder of what the fallen system was like. It was declared a historic monument in 2010.

In the courtyard of this building on Sienna Street, through the archway on the left, and just a little farther east, on Złota Street, are the only two surviving fragments of the infamous wall built by the Nazis to close off the Warsaw Ghetto in November 1940. Warsaw's was the largest Jewish ghetto established by the Germans during World War II. Between 300,000 and 400,000 people perished during the three years of its existence, from starvation, diseases (mostly typhoid), and deportation to Nazi death caps. It was the scene of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, led by Mordechaj Anielewicz, who died there at the age of 24. Among the hostages of history in the Warsaw Ghetto we find such memorable figures as Władysław Szpilman, "The Pianist" from Polański's movie, and Doctor Janusz Korczak, a pediatrician, teacher, and writer who ran an orphanage for Jewish children—who decided to accompany them all the way to the gas chambers of Treblinka. A tourist and cultural information kiosk can be found in the courtyard between Złota 60 and Sienna 55; it's open only on weekdays.

In a 19th-century liquor factory in the right-bank Praga district, the gallery exhibits, promotes, and even sells works by well-known contemporary Polish photographers. Sometimes the curators organize music and theater events. It's open by appointment only in August.

The third branch of the National Museum in Szczecin occupies an 18th-century palace called the Pod Głowami (literally, "Under the Heads"). Unfortunately, the interior shows nothing of its original splendor, instead, it offers somewhat cold design from the 1960s. White walls, geometrical iron crates, and smooth, ornament-free solid woodwork (softened by 40-some years of patina) create a stylish, though forlorn, space to enjoy modern art. Although the gallery owns an exquisite collection of modern Polish paintings and sculptures, the collection is not on permanent display. Instead, different temporary exhibitions take place.

Built at the end of the 19th century by the Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, this gallery has no permanent collection but organizes thought-provoking special exhibitions (primarily modern and contemporary art) in high-ceilinged, well-lit halls. It was in this building in 1922 that the first president of the post–World War I Polish Republic, Gabriel Narutowicz, was assassinated by a right-wing fanatic.

Built as a memorial after World War I, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier contains the body of a Polish soldier brought from the eastern battlefields of the Polish–Soviet war of 1919–20—a war not much mentioned in the 45 years of Communist rule after World War II. Ceremonial changes of the guard take place at noon each Sunday; visitors may be surprised to see the Polish Army still using the goose step on such occasions. The memorial is a surviving fragment of the early 18th-century Saxon Palace, which used to stand here on the west side of plac Piłsudskiego. Behind the tomb are the delightful Ogród Saski (Saxon Gardens), which once belonged to the palace and were designed by French and Saxon landscape gardeners. Scattered around the gardens, 21 baroque-era statues personify the muses and the virtues.

How often do you have a chance to have a cup coffee or a glass of wine among museum-quality artworks? In the Art Nouveau café Jama Michalika (also seen as Jama Michalikowa), the walls are hung with works by its original customers—artists, who sometimes paid their bills in kind.

Behind a high brick wall on ulica Okopowa you will find Warsaw's Jewish Cemetery, an island of continuity amid so much destruction of the city's Jewish heritage. The cemetery, which is still in use, survived the war, and although it was neglected and became badly overgrown during the postwar period, it is gradually being restored. Here you will find 19th-century headstones and much that testifies to the Jewish community's role in Polish history and culture. Ludwik Zamenhof, the creator of the artificial language Esperanto, is buried here, as are Henryk Wohl, minister of the treasury in the national government during the 1864 uprising against Russian rule; Szymon Askenazy, the historian and diplomat; Hipolit Wawelberg, the cofounder of Warsaw Polytechnic; and poet Bolesław Leśmian. To reach the cemetery, you can take a bus (nos. 107, 111, 180) or a tram (nos. 1, 22, 27).

You'll find the institute behind a glittering new office block on the southeast corner of plac Bankowy—the site of what had been the largest temple in Warsaw, the Tłomackie Synagogue. For those seeking to investigate their family history, the institute houses the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation Genealogy Project, which acts as a clearinghouse of information on available archival resources and on the history of towns and villages in which Polish Jews resided. English-speaking staff members are available. The institute also houses a museum that displays a permanent collection of mementos and artifacts and periodically organizes special exhibitions.

Wawel Hill, a 15-acre rocky limestone outcropping on the banks of the Vistula, dominates the old part of the city. The hill was a natural point for fortification on the flat Vistula Plain. During the 8th century it was topped with a tribal stronghold and since the 10th century has held a royal residence and served as the seat of the bishops of Kraków. Construction on the present Wawel Cathedral—the third cathedral in this very place—was begun in 1320, and the structure was consecrated in 1364. Little room for expansion on the hill has meant the preservation of the original austere structure, although a few Renaissance and baroque chapels have been crowded around it. The most notable of these is the Kaplica Zygmuntowska (Sigismund Chapel), built in the 1520s by the Florentine architect Bartolomeo Berrecci and widely considered to be the finest Renaissance chapel north of the Alps.

From 1037, when Kraków became the capital of Poland, Polish kings were crowned and buried in the Wawel Cathedral. This tradition continued up to the time of the partitions, even after the capital had been moved to Warsaw. During the 19th century, only great national heroes were honored by a Wawel entombment: Tadeusz Kościuszko was buried here in 1817; Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki, both great romantic poets, were also brought back from exile to the Wawel after their deaths; and Marshal Józef Piłsudski, the hero of independent Poland between the two world wars, was interred in the cathedral crypt in 1935. Many feel that this tradition was disrespected when, in a controversial decision, Wawel received the body of Lech Kaczyński, Poland's President who died in a tragic plane crash in 2010.

The cathedral also has a treasury, archives, library, and museum. Among the showpieces in the library, one of the earliest in Poland, is the 12th-century Emmeram Gospel from Regensburg. After touring at ground level, you can climb the wooden staircase of the Sigismund Tower, entering through the sacristy. The tower holds the famous Sigismund Bell, which was commissioned in 1520 by King Sigismund the Old and is still tolled on all solemn state and church occasions.

Pick up an audio guide for zł 7.

The cathedral's first incarnation was built on this spot in the late 12th century and was later replaced by a Gothic, three-aisle church built between the 13th and 14th centuries. In 1456, the 390-foot tower and the vaults collapsed. The present tower dates back to late 15th century and holds one of the biggest Polish bells, the baroque "Saint Jacob." Each of the church's three aisles is of equal height, so light fills the vast, homogenous space. Partly rebuilt after World War II, the modest, white-walled interior includes a 14th-century triptych from Ciećmierz and a 15th-century Pietà from Lubniewice. The biggest stained-glass window in Pomerania is in the eastern wall. Since 2008, organ music festivals have been held here annually in summer.

One of the oldest cafés in town, this lovely historical spot, next to the entrance to the National Museum in the Cloth Hall, is a great place to sit and watch the goings-on in the square while enjoying a coffee. This is also a good vantage point from which to observe the hourly trumpet call from the tower of the Church of Our Lady. Be warned: the service can be really slow—don't go there if you're on a tight schedule. But if you're at your leisure, then what does it matter?

This mound on the outskirts of Kraków was built in tribute to the memory of Tadeusz Kościuszko in 1820, three years after his death. The earth came from battlefields on which he had fought; soil from the United States was added on July 4, 1926, the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The best place from which to get a panoramic view of the city, the mound presides above a 19th-century Austrian fort. With the same ticket, you can also visit an exhibition explaining the system and the history of the Kraków Fortress. The entrance to the exhibition is to the right, after you come back down from the top of the mound.

This 15th-century church was used by King Charles Gustavus of Sweden as his headquarters during the Siege of Kraków in 1655. Its austere gothic interior is filled with exuberant baroque furnishings, most notably the pulpit in the shape of a boat floating on the waves of the sea. The organ, with 83 voices, 5950 pipes, and 25 bells, is the largest in Kraków, and it consists of two parts: the historical side organ from 1664, and the main organ, fitted in 1963.

The mid-13th-century church and monastery are among the earliest brick buildings in Kraków. The Art Nouveau stained-glass windows and wall decorations by Stanisław Wyspiański (dating from 1895 to 1905) are true masterpieces. The combination of austere Gothic and colorful Art Nouveau is surprising but harmonious. Wyspiański brought joy and emotions into the church, filling it with meadow flowers, of which its patron St. Francis of Assissi would certainly have approved. In the west window, above the choir, is a sight not to be missed: stained glass depicting God the Father creating the world.