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Krakow went down in history not only as a royal city, but also as the city of the first Polish university and the city where the first Polish book was printed. There are over 6,000 historical buildings here. The dominant feature is the originally Gothic Wawel Castle, a former royal residence. The center of the old town, located below the castle, is Europe's largest market square, Rynek Glowny, in the center with a 14th-century building, where cloth merchants originally lived. Evidence of the city's fascinating history are the remains of the 14th-century fortifications and the medieval Jewish quarter of Kazimierz with a museum in the 15th-century Old Synagogue. This synagogue is among the oldest Jewish places of worship in Europe. Other important monuments include the building of the Jagiellonian University, the 14th-century St. Mary's Church, and the 15th-century St. Mary's Church. with two towers (the taller one is 81 m) and the Gothic Wawel Cathedral, where Polish kings are buried.
More information: https://krakow.travel/en/ https://krakow.pl/krakow_open_city
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It is located near the town of Wieliczka in southern Poland. The mine is one of the oldest in the world, mining took place from the 13th century until 2007. Today it is a tourist attraction that offers numerous sculptures, galleries and a chapel carved by the miners. More than a million tourists visit the mine annually. The mine is 327 m deep, more than 200 km long and has seven floors. A 3.5 km long route is open to tourists. This route features sculptures by miners as well as contemporary artists. The crystals in the chandeliers are also made of salt rock, which is gray in several shades. At the end of the tourist route there is a large hall and a chapel that is used for various celebrations and weddings. In addition, the tourist part of the mine also has an underground lake and an exhibition of the history of salt mining. The mine is also used as a rehabilitation and wellness center. This salt mine reflects the historical stages of development of mining techniques from the 13th to the 20th century, with the equipment and tools preserved there documenting the old systems of sediment processing, drainage, lighting and ventilation of the mine in a way that is unique compared to world standards.
More information: https://kopalnia-bochnia.pl/en/
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The largest German extermination camp during the Nazi era. It was established in 1941 about 3 km from the Auschwitz I concentration camp, in the village of Brzezinka (German: Birkenau) near the Polish town of Auschwitz, about 60 km west of Kraków. Approximately 1.3 million people were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. It is estimated that about 1.1 million of them were murdered there. About 900,000 of the deportees were sent to the gas chambers or shot immediately upon arrival; the remaining 200,000 died from disease, malnutrition, torture, medical experiments, or later gassing.
"Auschwitz" became a symbol of the Holocaust, the genocide of about 6 million European Jews and other victims: Roma, Russian and Polish forced laborers, homosexuals and other "enemies of National Socialism". Fortified walls, barbed wire, railway, platforms, barracks, gallows, gas chambers and crematoria clearly show how the policy of mass murder was carried out. Personal objects in the collection testify to the lives of the victims as well as the cynical use of their property and remains.
More information: https://www.auschwitz.org/en/
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A Polish national park located in the Podlaskie Voivodeship in eastern Poland, near the border with Belarus. The protected area is a primeval forest known as the Białowieża Forest, which also covers a significant part of adjacent Belarus. It is made up of conifers and broad-leaved trees, and is home to rare mammals such as the wolf, lynx, otter, and a population of European bison that has been reintroduced to the park. The national park can only be visited by arrangement with park rangers; on foot or by bicycle.
More information: https://bpn.gov.pl/bialowieza-national-park
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During the invasion of Poland (1939), most of the city centre was severely damaged by the German Luftwaffe, which deliberately targeted residential and historically significant areas in its terrorist bombing. After the conquest of Warsaw, parts of the Old Town were restored, but immediately after the Warsaw Uprising (August–October 1944), the German army systematically burned and destroyed the entire quarter. The uprising is commemorated by the statue of the "Little Insurgent", which stands on the historic walls of the Old Town. After the war, a five-year reconstruction campaign, with the help of the city's inhabitants, succeeded in thoroughly restoring the Old Town, its churches, palaces and market square. All usable material was used. The rubble was sifted and the recovered decorative elements were set in their original places. This is an exceptional example of an almost complete reconstruction of historical development from the 13th to the 20th centuries.
More information: https://go2warsaw.pl/en/main-page/
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The "Pearl of the Renaissance" or "City of Arcades", Zamość was founded in the 16th century on the trade route connecting Western and Northern Europe with the Black Sea. It is a perfect example of a Renaissance city in Central Europe, comprehensively designed and built according to Italian theories of the perfect city; the result of the collaboration between the founder, Chancellor Jan Zamoyski, and the outstanding architect, Bernardo Morand. The city has preserved its original layout, fortifications and many buildings that combine Italian and Central European architectural traditions. The most important monuments include the town hall, market square, cathedral, bell tower, synagogue, Zamoyski Palace, the former academy and some historical buildings in the center.
More information: http://www.turystyka.zamosc.pl/en/
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This originally fortified monastery from the 13th century belonged to the order of German knights who undertook crusades against the pagan Prussians on the southern Baltic coast. In 1309, the seat of the Grand Master of the order moved here from Venice, and the building was subsequently significantly expanded and rebuilt into a castle. It is an admirable example of a medieval brick castle and a phenomenon of the religious state in Prussia. In later periods, it was damaged several times and in the 19th century it was thoroughly restored, while many conservation techniques that are used as standard today were developed here. During World War II, the castle was again heavily damaged and restored again.
More information: https://zamek.malbork.pl/en/home/
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It was founded in the 13th century on the Vistula River by merging the merchant Old Town and the artisan New Town. It owes its origin to the Order of Teutonic Knights, who built a castle here as their base for the conquests and evangelization of Prussia. The historic center is surrounded by the remains of the city walls from the 14th to 15th centuries with bastions and loopholes. In front of the 14th century town hall there is a monument to the most famous native, Nicolaus Copernicus. His birthplace, a Gothic house, is next to the Bishop's Palace from the late 17th century. The city has many impressive historical buildings in Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles. Toruń is also known in Poland for the production of gingerbread.
More information: https://www.tak.torun.pl/en/castle/
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It is an exceptional cultural monument, where the natural landscape was used as a backdrop for a symbolic representation of the events of the Crucifixion of Christ. The pilgrimage house, chapels and shrines were built in the 17th century and have remained unchanged to this day, still used as pilgrimage sites.
More information: https://kalwaria.eu/english/
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The largest wooden-framed church buildings in Europe. They were built in the former Silesia in the mid-17th century. They bear witness to the struggle for religious freedom and are a rare manifestation of Lutheran ideology in a generally Catholic environment. According to the conditions set by the emperor, they had to be built in a way previously unknown in wooden architecture. The buildings are beautifully decorated.
More information: http://kosciolpokojujawor.pl/en/
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They were founded by noble families and became status symbols. They were built from horizontally placed logs and represent an exceptional example of Gothic church architecture common in Eastern and Northern Europe during the Middle Ages. Their artistic and technical design is particularly impressive. The churches are located in the districts of Gorlice, Nowy Targ, Bochnia and Brzozów, and in the Lesser Poland and Podkarpacie voivodeships.
More information: https://www.parafiabinarowa.pl//index.php?id=20
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The landscape park on both sides of the Lusatian Neisse River, which forms the border between Poland and Germany, is the largest English park in both countries. It was created by the German prince and landscape architect Hermann von Puckler-Muskau between 1815 and 1844. Local plants were used to emphasize the qualities of the existing landscape. The park contains a new and old castle, an orangery, an arboretum and several buildings. This integrated landscape extends into the city of Muskau with green passages that form city parks. The city thus became a design component in a utopian landscape.
More information: https://muskauer-park.de/en
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An important monument of modern architecture. The multi-purpose concrete building located on the Exhibition Grounds was created between 1911 and 1913 by the German architect Max Berg. It is a symmetrical four-leaf clover with a huge central circular space with a capacity of 6,000 people. The 23 m high dome is topped with a glass and steel chandelier. The hall serves for conferences, exhibitions, concerts, operas and theater.
More information: https://halastulecia.pl/en/for-visitors/
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The ancient and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe are a transnational serial property consisting of 93 plots in 18 countries. They represent an outstanding example of relatively undisturbed, complex temperate forests and exhibit a wide range of complex ecological patterns and processes of pure and mixed beech stands in a variety of environmental conditions. The European beech (Fagus sylvatica) has survived every glacial phase (ice age) over the past 1 million years in the harsh climatic conditions of refuge areas in the southern parts of the European continent. These refuges have been documented by scientists using paleoecological analysis and the latest genetic coding techniques. After the last ice age, around 11,000 years ago, beech began to expand its range from these southern refuge areas to eventually cover large parts of the European continent. During this expansion process, which is still ongoing, beech has created different types of plant communities that occupy very different environments. The interplay between the diversity of environments, climatic gradients and different species gene pools has shaped and continues to shape this high diversity of beech forest communities. These forests contain an invaluable population of old trees and a genetic reservoir of beech and many other species that are tied to and dependent on these old forest habitats.
More information: https://www.europeanbeechforests.org/
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The common site, located on the eastern edge of Central Europe, contains a selection of sixteen churches. They were built from horizontal wooden logs in the 16th to 19th centuries by communities of the Orthodox and Greek Catholic faiths. The tserkvas testify to a distinctive building tradition rooted in Orthodox church design interwoven with elements of local tradition and symbolic references to the cosmogony of their communities. The tserkvas are built on a three-part plan, above which open quadrangular or octagonal domes and cupolas. Iconostasis screens, interior polychrome decorations and other historical furnishings are inherent to the churches. Important elements of some tserkvas include wooden bell towers, cemeteries, gatehouses and cemeteries.
More information: https://zabytek.pl/en/obiekty/drewniane-cerkwie-w-polskim-i-ukrainskim-regionie-karpat?setlang=1
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It is located in Upper Silesia, southern Poland, in one of the main mining areas of Central Europe, and includes the entire underground mine with galleries, shafts, adit and other elements of the water management system. Most of the properties are located underground, while the topography of the surface mining contains the remains of shafts and tailings, as well as the remains of a steam water pumping station from the 19th century. The elements of the water management system located underground and on the surface testify to the continuous three-year effort to drain the underground mining zone and use unwanted water from the mines to supply cities and industry. Tarnowskie Góry represents a significant contribution to the global production of lead and zinc.
More information: https://unesco.tarnowskiegory.pl/#
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Krzemionki is located in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains and is a collection of four mining sites from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age (c. 3900 to 1600 BC), dedicated to the mining and processing of banded flint, which was used mainly for the manufacture of axes. With its underground mining structures, flint workshops and approximately 4,000 shafts and pits, the property features one of the most complex prehistoric underground systems of flint mining and processing identified to date.
More information: https://muzeumostrowiec.pl/en/strona-glowna-english/
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Source: World Heritage List Poland
