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Małopolska

Małopolska, known in English as Lesser Poland, is the sprawling region that brushes up against Kraków. Covering much of the southeast, it’s played an outsized role in Polish history, forming the core of the ancient Polish kingdom. These days, though, it’s mostly passed over by travellers who make a beeline for Kraków and then move on.

That’s a pity. The region is rich in natural beauty, with rolling hills and several national parks. Sandomierz, an ancient Gothic town on a bluff overlooking the Vistula River, is one of Poland’s prettiest places. A close runner-up is the popular weekend destination of Kazimierz Dolny. Zamość is a World Heritage site.

The region is also rich in cultural diversity. Częstochowa is a pilgrimage site for Roman Catholics. To the east, Lublin and Chełm were once home to large Jewish communities, and moving traces of their centuries-long existence and demise are important sights today.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Małopolska.

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Paulite Monastery of Jasna Góra
Poland’s spiritual capital began with the arrival of the Paulite order from Hungary in 1382, who named the 293m hill in the western part of the city ‘Jasna Góra’ (Bright Hill) and erected this monastery. Believers are drawn to the site for miracles credited to the Black Madonna painting in the Chapel of Our Lady, though there are many other sights worth seeing, too. The information centre arranges guided tours in English. The monastery entrance is on the south side. The oldest part of the monastery, the Chapel of Our Lady, contains the revered Black Madonna. The picture is unveiled to soaring music and prayer at 6am and 1.30pm (2pm Saturday and Sunday) and covered again at noon and 9.20pm (1pm and 9.20pm Saturday and Sunday). Be sure to note the walls displaying votive offerings brought by pilgrims. Adjoining the chapel is the impressive basilica ( bazylika). Its present shape dates to the 17th century and the interior has opulent baroque furnishings. On the northern side of the chapel, paintings in the Knights’ Hall (Sala Rycerska) depict key events from the monastery’s history; there’s also an exact copy of the Black Madonna. Upstairs, the Golghota Gallery contains a series of unique paintings by celebrated local painter and cartoonist Jerzy Duda Gracz (1941–2004), whose evocative works are indicative of the monastery’s ability to preserve its historical heritage while maintaining modern relevance. Note that many pilgrims traverse the circumference of the chapel on their knees. The 106m bell tower, the tallest historic church tower in Poland, offers views over the monastery complex and the expanse of al NMP. With many fallen predecessors, the current tower dates to 1906. The small 600th Anniversary Museum contains fascinating artefacts, including the founding documents of Jasna Góra from 1382 and a cross made from steel from the rubble of the World Trade Center. Particularly moving are rosaries made from breadcrumbs by concentration camp prisoners. Lech Wałęsa’s 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, donated by its recipient, can be found beyond the Father Kordecki Conference Room. Items related to Pope John Paul II abound. The arsenal contains various military mementos, including spoils of battle, offerings from soldiers and an impressive collection of Turkish weapons from the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The 17th-century treasury contains votive offerings dating to the 15th century. Since the 17th century, records have been kept of gifts given to the Madonna, including the many bejewelled shrouds.
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Bełżec Memorial
This subdued memorial and museum bears witness to the 600,000 Jews killed here in 1942 by the Nazis as part of their ‘Operation Reinhard’, the German plan to eliminate the Jewish population of occupied Poland. There were only two known survivors from Bełżec. The memorial, moving in its simplicity, covers the surprisingly small site of the original camp. Children under 14 are not permitted into the museum, which while small, is very well done. Plan on spending one to two hours. Trains brought an average of 2000 people a day to Bełżec from March to December 1942. Here, like at Sobibór and Treblinka, there was no ‘selection’ process, only a miniscule chance for the prisoners to work, and crucially no chance for them to survive. In most instances, the victims were simply transported to the camps, off-loaded, stripped of their belongings, separated from their loved ones, undressed and gassed. Few people lived more than an hour after arriving at Bełżec. The memorial today covers the extent of the original camp. It's sobering to see how little space (and few people – the Germans and their Ukrainian guards never numbered more than about 120) was needed to kill so many. The memorial includes some of the tracks used by the trains that brought people here (the same line can be seen outside the gates today). Visitors walk along a short path that is the same route as the Jews took to the gas chamber. The walls steadily grow taller – behind them are the ashes of the dead – until the sky itself is blotted out. The small museum is excellent and was developed with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It explains the workings of the camp, but devotes most of its space to humanising some of those who died here. Quotes from Rudolf Reder, the one survivor able to document his time at Bełżec, are searing. Another section is devoted to the significant yet futile efforts made by Jewish organisations to alert Allied leaders as early as 1942 about the death camps. Be sure to buy the Short Guide pamphlet (5zł), which provides vital context for a visit.
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Majdanek
Majdanek concentration camp, where tens of thousands of people, mainly Jews, were murdered by the Germans during WWII, lies on the outskirts of Lublin – guard towers and barbed-wire fences interrupting the suburban sprawl are a jarring juxtaposition. Allow half a day for the 5km walk around the 270-hectare camp; if pushed for time, visit the historical exhibition in barracks 62 and the photographic display in barracks 45. Majdanek is 4km southeast of the Kraków Gate: take bus 23. Majdanek was Heinrich Himmler's idea. In 1941 he gave orders for a work camp to be built in Lublin that would use 25,000 to 50,000 people as slave labour for the German war effort. It was a prison for people not just from Poland but from almost 30 countries, plus Soviet prisoners of war. Of the 150,000 people who were imprisoned in Majdanek, 80,000 died, including 60,000 Jews. Many succumbed to disease, starvation and the forced labour. In the summer of 1942, the gas chambers were built as part of Operation Reinhard, the plan to exterminate Polish Jews. Majdanek then functioned more as a death camp as opposed to a labour camp. The surviving crematorium was built in 1943 to handle the ever-increasing number of bodies. Visiting the camp involves navigating the vast site. The visitor service centre at the entrance is the place to get useful maps of the camp and view exhibitions. Two huge monuments date to 1969 and mark the camp entrance and the place where the ashes of the victims are buried. The historical exhibition in the reconstructed barracks also includes a very good exhibit about Lublin in WWII in barracks 44. Note that the gas chambers are closed for long-term stabilisation of the foundations.
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Chapel of Our Lady
The oldest part of the Paulite Monastery of Jasna Góra contains the revered Black Madonna. The picture is unveiled to soaring music and prayer at 6am and 1.30pm (2pm Saturday and Sunday) and covered again at noon and 9.20pm (1pm and 9.20pm Saturday and Sunday). Be sure to note the walls displaying votive offerings brought by pilgrims. Adjoining the chapel is the impressive basilica (bazylika). Its present shape dates to the 17th century and the interior has opulent baroque furnishings. On the northern side of the chapel, paintings in the Knights’ Hall (Sala Rycerska) depict key events from the monastery’s history; there’s also an exact copy of the Black Madonna. Upstairs, the Golghota Gallery contains a series of unique paintings by celebrated local painter and cartoonist Jerzy Duda Gracz (1941–2004), whose evocative works are indicative of the monastery’s ability to preserve its historical heritage while maintaining modern relevance. Note that many pilgrims traverse the circumference of the chapel on their knees.
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Sobibór Memorial
For several decades, the Sobibór memorial was a simple collection of monuments and a tiny museum. It was moving in its simplicity, the paucity of visitors adding to the contemplative atmosphere. The site is now being massively transformed. A new museum is set to open by 2021, with exhibits designed for visitors several generations removed from WWII. In the meantime, much of the memorial is technically closed, but you can arrange visits in advance and there is a public viewing area. Sobibór was one of three extermination camps built by the Nazis (along with Bełżec and Treblinka) as part of Operation Reinhard, the plan to kill all the Jews living in occupied Poland. The Nazis picked this remote swampy site to escape notice. The camp was only 24 hectares and the staff of Nazi and Ukrainian guards never numbered more than 150. The train tracks where boxcars filled with Jews arrived are still in place. Victims were ordered out of trains, stripped of their clothes and belongings and separated from loved ones. Women had their hair shorn off so it could be used in the German war effort (mattress stuffing). Amid shouts and beatings, hundreds of people at a time were then force-marched up the cynically named Road to Heaven (Himmelfahrtstrasse) and into the gas chambers. Few people who arrived at Sobibór lived for more than hour. Jews from elsewhere in Europe were also killed here. From the Netherlands, over 34,000 Dutch Jews, distributed over 19 trains, were brought here. Of these, only 18 survived and returned to Holland after WWII. On 14 October 1943, the camp's slave workers revolted. Led by a Soviet POW, they killed German and Ukrainian guards and some 300 escaped (an event recalled in several movies, including the 2018 Russian film Sobibór). Ultimately only 50 survived the intense efforts to hunt them down. In response, the Germans shut down Sobibór. The site was plowed under and trees planted to try to hide the evidence. Despite there being fields of bone fragments and ashes, Sobibor's isolation helped it slip into obscurity; the first memorial wasn't erected until 1965. Sobibór is now a branch of the Majdanek State Museum. At the end of 2008, the governments of Poland, The Netherlands, Slovakia and Israel agreed to significantly upgrade the facilities. Since then the project has proceeded with the sort of fits and start not unexpected with such a diverse group of stakeholders. The open ground which was covered in human ashes and bone fragments has now been covered in bright white stones. The new museum is planned to match the quality of the facilities at Bełżec and Madjanek. Contact the memorial staff to get permission to enter the compound. You can also view the main site from a public footpath behind a chapel 150m north of the new museum site.
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Benedictine Monastery of Holy Cross
This hilltop monastery got its name from the segment of Jesus’ cross that was supposedly kept here. The abbey is at the top of Łysa Góra (595m). It has a fascinating history going back nearly a millennium. Besides the 2km hike up from the Nowa Słupia entrance, there's access from the west via the village of Huta Szklana. While you can drive up, many prefer to park and hike up the moderately steep and bucolic 1.8km road to the monastery. There are sweeping views of the region from the monastery grounds. Get a beer and a sausage from the snack stand and enjoy the view from a picnic table. Most sources estimate the complex was built in the 11th century on an 8th- and 9th-century pagan worship site. In more recent times, with the abolition of the Benedictine Order by the Russians in 1819, the abbey was converted into a prison. After a brief period of restoration, under Nazi Germany the buildings were reconverted into prisons. The Gestapo tortured many monks here before transporting them to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and many Soviet prisoners of war were executed and buried in mass graves near the peak. Under communism, the abbey was transferred to the national park and renovations commenced.
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Pieskowa Skała Castle
If you can only do one thing in Ojców National Park, visit this 14th-century castle, one of the best-preserved castles in the upland. The castle was rebuilt in the 16th century in imitation of the royal residence of Wawel and is now a branch of the Wawel Royal Castle museum, with many exhibitions and a large collection of art and artefacts from the 15th to 19th centuries. The castle is near the park's north end, about 8km north of Ojców village. From the castle, the red trail along the road towards Ojców takes you to an iconic 25m-tall limestone pillar; it’s rather demurely called Hercules’ Club (Maczuga Herkulesa). The limited castle parking is 20zł. There is a decent restaurant in the castle.
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Old Jewish Cemetery
The old Jewish cemetery, established in 1541, has 30-odd readable tombstones, including the oldest Jewish tombstone in Poland in its original location. The graveyard is on a hill between ul Sienna and ul Kalinowszczyzna, about 700m to the east of the bus terminal. It is surrounded by a wall and the gate is locked, get keys at the Hotel Ilan. Amidst the old trees, there is a good view of the site of the former Jewish community around the castle. Though the cemetery is small, it holds the remains of several distinguished rabbis and scholars of the local community. These include Yaakov Yitzhak Horowitz, known as the Seer of Lublin, who died in 1815.
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Holy Cross Church
The Holy Cross Church in the Benedictine Monastery of Holy Cross was rebuilt several times over the years. The present-day church and its bright white mainly neoclassical interior date to the late 18th century. In addition to the church, you can also tour the crypts, where you’ll see the mummified remains of nobleman Jeremi Michal Korybut.