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Silesia

Occupying the southwestern part of Poland, Silesia (Śląsk, pronounced shlonsk in Polish), is a diverse collection of historically powerful cities, industrial engine rooms and low-rising, farm-flanked mountains.

Wrocław, the region's historical capital and Poland's fourth-largest city, is the overwhelming draw here, yet smaller cities such as Nysa and Jelenia Góra also offer distinctive sights and activities. To the south, stretching over the Czech border, the Sudetes Mountains promise scenic beauty and idyllic resort towns, and are popular with hikers, bikers and spa fans.

The rich and turbulent history of this region is never far beneath its charm. Silesia boasts memorable architecture ranging from medieval fortresses to baroque cathedrals. Great tragedy is also remembered here: Silesia was where Nazi Germany set up the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps, now preserved as an essential, unforgettable memorial.

Top attractions

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

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Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial & Museum
Auschwitz-Birkenau is synonymous with the Holocaust. More than a million Jews, and many Poles and Roma, were murdered here by German Nazis during WWII. Both sections of the camp – Auschwitz I and the much larger outlying Birkenau (Auschwitz II) – have been preserved and are open to visitors. It's essential to visit both to appreciate the extent and horror of the place. From April to October it’s compulsory to join a tour if you arrive between 10am and 3pm. Book well ahead either online or by phone, or turn up early (before 9.30am). English-language tours leave at numerous times throughout the day, generally most frequently between 10am and 1.30pm, when they operate half-hourly. Most tours include a short documentary film about the liberation of the camp by Soviet troops in January 1945 (not recommended for children under 14). The museum’s visitor centre is at the entrance to the Auschwitz I site. Photography and filming are permitted throughout the camp without the use of a flash or tripod. There’s a self-service snack bar by the entrance as well as a kantor (private currency-exchange office), free left-luggage room and bookshops with publications about the site. If not on a tour, get a copy of the museum-produced Auschwitz Birkenau Guidebook (5zł). It includes plans of both camps. The Auschwitz extermination camp was established in prewar Polish army barracks on the outskirts of Oświęcim by the German occupiers in April 1940. Auschwitz was originally intended for Polish political prisoners, but the camp was then adapted for the wholesale extermination of the Jews of Europe in fulfilment of German Nazi ideology. For this purpose, the much larger camp at Birkenau (Brzezinka) was built 2km west of the original site in 1941 and 1942, followed by another one in Monowitz (Monowice), several kilometres to the west.
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Auschwitz I
Auschwitz I was only partially destroyed by the fleeing Germans, and many of the original brick buildings stand to this day as a bleak testament to the camp’s history. Some 13 of the 30 surviving prison blocks now house museum exhibitions – either general, or dedicated to victims from particular countries or ethnic groups that lost people at Auschwitz. Presented without unnecessary comment, the collections of suitcases, pots, artificial limbs, gas canisters and human hair speak for themselves. From the visitors centre in the entrance building, you enter the barbed-wire encampment through the infamous gate, displaying the grimly cynical message in German: ‘ Arbeit Macht Frei ’ ('Work Sets You Free'). The sign is in fact a replica, which replaced the original when it was stolen in late 2009. Though it was recovered within a few days, it had been cut into pieces by the thieves and took 17 months to restore. The replica has remained in place, with the original sign now on display within the museum. The closing times quoted above are times of last entry: it's possible to spend another 90 minutes here, once in.
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Birkenau (Auschwitz II)
Though much of Birkenau was destroyed by the retreating Germans, the size of the place, fenced off with long lines of barbed wire and watchtowers stretching almost as far as your eye can see, will give you some idea of the scale of the crime; climb the tower at the entrance gate to get the full effect. If you’re not part of a tour, make sure to leave enough time (at least an hour) to walk around the camp. It was actually at Birkenau, not Auschwitz, that most of the killing took place. Massive (175 hectares) and purpose-built for efficiency, the camp had more than 300 prison barracks – they were actually stables built for horses, but housed 300 people each. Birkenau had four huge gas chambers, complete with crematoria. Each could asphyxiate 2000 people at one time, and were fitted with electric lifts to raise the bodies to the ovens more quickly and conveniently.
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Książ Castle
This impossibly photogenic castle, the largest in Silesia, commands a thickly wooded prominence in Książ. Following the destruction of an earlier stronghold in 1263, the Silesian Duke Bolko I built a castle here in the late 13th century. That fortress passed to the von Hobergs (later called the Hochbergs) in 1509, and was repeatedly assaulted and remodelled until well into the 20th century. Today you'll see a melange of styles from Romanesque onwards, with the oldest section at its heart. The eastern part (to the right) is an 18th-century baroque addition, while the western segment was built between 1908 and 1923 in a neo-Renaissance style. During WWII, under Hitler’s direct orders, the German authorities confiscated the castle and began construction of a mysterious underground complex beneath the building and surrounding areas. Opened in 2018, the Underground Tourist Route now allows visitors to explore a 1.5km section of the works. An enhanced-entry ticket to the entire castle (adult/concession 47/37zł) entitles you to a 45-minute tour. Following the war, the Soviet military used Książ as a barracks; from 1946 it was largely abandoned, and started falling into ruin. Luckily, restoration work began in 1974, and the lavish interiors can now be visited. Thankfully, this is one Polish stately home that you can visit without having to accompany a Polish-language tour or wear shower caps over your shoes. As an individual visitor, you follow a prescribed (and rather convoluted) route through the castle, seeing a selection of rooms. The showpiece is Maximilian Hall, built in the first half of the 18th century. It’s the largest room in the castle and completely restored to its original lavish form, including the ceiling (1733) painted with mythological scenes. The identical fireplaces on either side of the room are sublime. Along with the main rooms, including ‘themed’ salons (baroque, Chinese, white etc) on the 1st floor, you’ll encounter various temporary exhibits and galleries en route, sometimes with objets d'art for sale. There’s also an exhibition on the various dukes up to the castle’s last owners, Prince Hans Heinrich XV and his wife Princess Daisy, who was born in Wales. There are several restaurants and cafes dotted about the complex, including a grill and beer garden with leafy views on a terrace within the castle itself. Approaching the castle from the car park, you'll pass through a large decorative free-standing gateway for your first view of the edifice, standing at the end of a beautifully landscaped garden.
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Kłodzko Fortress
This mighty fortification, begun under Austrian rule in the mid-17th century on the site of former strongholds dating to the 10th century, was extended and modernised over the following 200 years. Today it covers 17 hectares, making it the largest and best-preserved fortification of its kind in Poland. The walls in the lower parts measure up to 11m thick, and taper to never less than 4m. The entrance is up the hill north of the town’s central Rynek. On entering, you can wander around various pathways and chambers and go to the top of the fortress for a bird’s-eye view of town. There are several exhibitions in the grounds, including a lapidarium containing old stone sculptures (mostly tombstones) collected from historical buildings around the region. However, the real attraction here is the extensive network of defensive tunnels. Guided 40-minute tours of this so-called labyrinth begin on the hour, taking you on a 1km circuit including some passageways that are so low you have to bend over. The temperature ranges from 6°C to 8°C and the humidity is very high. Altogether 40km of tunnels were drilled around the fortress; they served two purposes. Those under the fortifications were principally for communication, shelter and storage, while the others, running up to 500m away from the fortress, were designed to attack and destroy enemy artillery. The tunnels were divided into sectors and stuffed with gunpowder; when the enemy happened to move their guns into a particular sector, the relevant chamber could be blown up. This bizarre minefield was initiated in 1743 by a Dutch engineer, and by 1807 an immense labyrinth of tunnels had been built. The system was never actually used – at least not here.
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Góry Stołowe National Park
The Góry Stołowe ( goo -ri sto- wo -veh; Table Mountains) are among the most spectacular ranges of the Sudetes, as they’re topped by a plateau punctuated by fantastic rock formations. One of the highlights of the 63-sq-km park is Szczeliniec Wielki, its highest outcrop. Both German poet Goethe and the USA's sixth president, John Quincy Adams, walked here and admired the dramatic scenery. From a distance, the plateau looks like a high ridge adorned with pinnacles, rising abruptly from the surrounding fields. From just beyond Karłów, a small village about 1km south of the plateau, you ascend 682 stone steps, which takes about 40 minutes. From there, the one-hour trail around the summit gives excellent views of both the mountain scenery and the rock formations, before arriving back at its starting point. About 4km to the west, the Błędne Skały are another impressive feature, comprising hundreds of 'Errant Rocks', some up to 11m in diameter. They were deposited by glaciers in vaguely geometric shapes, forming a vast stone labyrinth. A sometimes very narrow trail runs between the rocks. To get to Karłów, catch a privately run minibus from Kudowa-Zdrój (8zł, 20 minutes). Alternatively, take one of the frequent buses from Kudowa-Zdrój to Polanica-Zdrój (9zł, 35 minutes, half-hourly), from where there are three daily buses to Karłów (10zł, 50 minutes).
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Panorama of Racławice
Wrocław’s pride and joy is this giant painting of the battle for Polish independence fought at Racławice on 4 April 1794, between the Polish army led by Tadeusz Kościuszko and Russian troops under General Alexander Tormasov. The Poles won but it was all for naught: months later the nationwide insurrection was crushed by the tsarist army. The canvas measures 15m by 114m, and is wrapped around the internal walls of a purpose-built rotunda. Visits are by guided audio tours, departing every half hour. The small rotunda (free admission) behind the ticket office features a model of the battlefield and the uniforms of forces engaged in the battle. The painting came into being when, a century after the battle, it was commissioned by a group of patriots in Lviv (then the Polish city of Lwów). The two main artists, Jan Styka and Wojciech Kossak, were helped by seven other painters who did the background scenes and details. They completed the monumental canvas in just over nine months, using 750kg of paint. After WWII the painting was sent to Wrocław, but since it depicted a defeat of the Russians (then Poland’s official friend and liberator), the communist authorities were reluctant to put it on display. The pavilion built for the panorama in 1967 sat empty until 1985, when the canvas was shown for the first time in more than four decades.
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Church of Peace
This magnificent building, the largest baroque timber church in Europe, was erected between 1656 and 1657 in just 10 months. The builders were not trying to set any records; the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 allowed the Protestants of Silesia to build three churches as long as they took less than a year, had no belfry and used only clay, sand and wood for materials. The churches at Świdnica and Jawor remain; the one at Głogów burned down in 1758. The Świdnica church is a shingled structure laid out in the form of a cross and contains not a single nail. The interior is a beautiful, peaceful place to sit in contemplation for a few minutes; the timber structure seems to possess an intimate inclusiveness that big stone churches sometimes lack. The baroque decoration, with paintings covering the walls and coffered ceiling, has been preserved intact. Along the walls, two storeys of galleries and several small balconies were installed, allowing some 3500 seated worshippers and 4000 standees. The church was added to Unesco’s World Heritage List in 2001. The church is 400m northeast of the Rynek; enter via the arched gateway off ul Kościelna.
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Wang Church
Karpacz has a curious architectural gem – Wang Church, the only Nordic Romanesque building in Poland. Pronounced 'Vang', this remarkable wooden structure in Upper Karpacz was one of about 400 such chapels built in the early 12th century on the bank of Lake Vang in southern Norway; only 28 of these 'stave churches' survive there today. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia bought this one in 1841, had it dismantled piece by piece, and then transported to Karpacz via Berlin. Not only is it the oldest church in the Sudetes, it’s also the highest situated (886m). The church is made of hard Norwegian pine and has been constructed without a single nail. It’s surrounded by a cloister that helps to protect it from the mountain wind. Part of the woodcarving is original and in excellent shape, particularly the doorways and the capitals of the pillars. The free-standing stone belfry was built when the church was reconstructed here.