Destination Poland

Polish cities and towns reflect the whole spectrum of European styles. Romanesque architecture is represented by St. Andrew's Church in Krakow, and characteristic for Poland, Brick Gothic by St. Mary's Church in Gdansk. Richly decorated attics and arcade loggias are the common elements of the Polish Renaissance architecture.

• Discover Poland Highlights A-Z

» Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Auschwitz Concentration Camp was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was the largest of the German concentration camps, consisting of Auschwitz I (the Stammlager or base camp); Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the Vernichtungslager or extermination camp); Auschwitz III-Monowitz, also known as Buna-Monowitz (a labor camp); and 45 satellite camps …

» Bay of Puck

The Bay of Puck, historically also known as the Bay of Putzig, is a shallow western branch of the Bay of Gdansk in the southern Baltic Sea, off the shores of Gdansk Pomerania, Poland. It is separated from the open sea by the Hel Peninsula. The bay has an average depth of 2-6 metres. There is a shallow sand-bank from Rewa Cape to Kuznica in the middle of Hel Peninsula …

» Elblag Canal

Elblag Canalis a canal in Poland, in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, 80.5 km in length, which runs southward from Lake Druzno, to the river Drweca and lake Jeziorak. Today it is used mainly for recreational purposes. It is considered one of the most significant monuments related to the history of technology and was listed by Unesco as a memorial to world culture inheritances. In Poland it has recently been named one of Seven Wonders of Poland …

» Discover Gdansk, Poland

Gdansk is Poland's principal seaport as well as the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is also historically the largest city of the Kashubian region. The city is close to the former late medieval/modern boundary between West Slavic and Germanic lands and it has a complex political history with periods of Polish rule, periods of German rule, and extensive self-rule, with two spells as a free city. It has been part of modern Poland since 1945 …

» Kosciuszko Mound

Kosciuszko Mound in Krakow, Poland, erected by Cracovians in commemoration of the Polish national leader Tadeusz Kosciuszko, is an artificial mound modeled after Krakow's prehistoric mounds of Krak and Wanda. A serpentine path leads to the top, approx. 326 metres (1,070 ft) above sea level, with a panoramic view of the Vistula River and the city. It was completed in November 1823. It is one of Krakow's four mounds …

» Discover Krakow, Poland

Krakow has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second most important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was already being reported as a busy trading centre of Slavonic Europe in 965. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic and throughout the 20th century, Krakow reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre …

» Malbork Castle

Malbork Castle is the largest castle in the world by surface area, and the largest brick building in Europe. It was built in Prussia by the Teutonic Knights, a German Roman Catholic religious order of crusaders, in a form of an Ordensburg fortress. The Order named it Marienburg (Mary's Castle). The castle is a classic example of a medieval fortress and, on its completion in 1406, was the world's largest brick castle …

» Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 in the city of Thorn, in the province of Royal Prussia, in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. The youngest of four children, his father was a merchant from Krakow and his mother was the daughter of a wealthy Thorn merchant. Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe …

» Discover Poznan, Poland

Poznan is an important centre of trade, industry, and education, and hosts regular international trade fairs. It was the host city for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2008, a key stage in the creation of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The local football team has been responsible for the spread of the eponymous goal celebration to Manchester City and to a lesser extent throughout the United Kingdom …

» Lake Solina, Poland

Lake Solina is an artificial lake in the Bieszczady Mountains region, in Lesko County of the Subcarpathian Voivodship of Poland. It is the best known tourist attraction of the region, with waterside villages like Solina, Myczkowce and Polanczyk catering to watersports enthusiasts. The lake's great depth, water clarity, and mountainous scenery makes it a very popular destination for boaters …

» Slowinski National Park

Slowinski National Park is a National Park in Pomeranian Voivodeship, northern Poland. It is situated on the Baltic coast, between ?eba and Rowy. The northern boundary of the Park consists of 32.5 kilometres (20.2 mi) of coastline. In the past, the park’s area was a Baltic Sea bay. The sea’s activity, however, created sand dunes which in the course of time separated the bay from the Baltic Sea …

» Tatra Mountains

The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatray, are a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains. The Mountains have a diverse variety of plant life. They are home to more than 1,000 species of vascular plants, about 450 mosses, 200 liverworts, 700 lichens, 900 fungi, and 70 slime moulds …

» Discover Torun, Poland

The medieval Old Town of Torun is the birthplace of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. In 1997 the medieval part of the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first settlement in the vicinity is dated by archaeologists to 1100 BC. During early medieval times, in the 7th-13th centuries, it was the location of an old Slavonic settlement, at a ford in the Vistula river. The Teutonic Knights built a castle in the vicinity of the Polish settlement in the years 1230-31 …

» The Vistula River

The Vistula is the longest and the most important[citation needed] river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The Vistula rises at Barania Gora in the south of Poland, 1220 meters above sea level in the Silesian Beskids (western part of Carpathian Mountains) where it begins with the White Little Vistula (Biala Wiselka) and the Black Little Vistula (Czarna Wiselka). It then continues to flow over the vast Polish plains, passing several large Polish cities along its way …

» Discover Warsaw, Poland

Warsaw's palaces, churches and mansions display a richness of color and architectural details. Buildings are representatives of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. The city has wonderful examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque and neoclassical periods, all of which are located within easy walking distance of the town centre …

» Wawel Castle

The gothic Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland was built at the behest of Casimir III the Great and consists of a number of structures situated around the central courtyard. In the 14th century it was rebuilt by Jogaila and Jadwiga of Poland. Their reign saw the addition of the tower called the Hen's Foot (Kurza Stopka) and the Danish Tower. The Jadwiga and Jogaila Chamber, in which the sword Szczerbiec, was used in coronation ceremonies, is exhibited today and is another remnant of this period …

» Wawel Cathedral

The Wawel Cathedral or by its full name Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Stanislaus and Wenceslaus, is a Roman Catholic church located on Wawel Hill in Krakow, Poland. More than 900 years old, it is the Polish national sanctuary and traditionally has served as coronation site of the Polish monarchs as well as the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Krakow. Pope John Paul II offered his first Mass as a priest in the Crypt of the Cathedral on 2 November 1946 …

» Wieliczka Salt Mine

The Wieliczka Salt Mine, located in the town of Wieliczka in southern Poland, lies within the Krakow metropolitan area. The mine, built in the 13th century, produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world's oldest salt mines still in operation. The mine's attractions include dozens of statues and an entire chapel that has been carved out of the rock salt by the miners. About 1.2 million people visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine annually …

» Discover Zakopane, Poland

Zakopane is located in southern Poland near the border with Slovakia. It lies in a valley between the Tatra Mountains and Gubalowka Hill. It can be reached by train or bus from Krakow, which is about two and a half hours away. Zakopane has an elevation of 800-1,000 meters above sea level. The town is centered at the junction of Krupiwki and Kosciuszko Streets …

» Discover Zamosc, Poland

Zamosc is a unique example of a Renaissance town in Central Europe, designed and built in accordance with the Italian theories of the "ideal town".The result of this is a stylistically homogeneous urban composition with a high level of architectural and landscape values. The Old Town together with the remains of the old Zamosc Fortress are on the UNESCO World Heritage list …