UNESCO SITES

UNESCO sites – the places you can find only in Poland

Poland is a country of 1000-year-old history, rich traditions and abundant cultural heritage. The legacy of bygone centuries that includes monuments of architecture, historical mementos and masterpieces of art is perfectly combined with the wealth of Polish nature and its original landscapes.

Let’s see the list of 16 UNESCO sites in Poland!

Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines
Together with the neighboring Bochnia it is one of the oldest salt mines in the world. These are also one of the oldest running companies.

Malbork – The largest Medieval castle in Europe
The brick castle of Malbork was the seat of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order and the largest structure of its kind in Medieval Europe.

Historic Center of Kraków
The Medieval urban layout of the Old Town has not changed for centuries. Every visitor to Cracow should see Europe’s largest Medieval market square with its Cloth Hall, the Church of the Holy Mary, Wawel Hill and its royal castle.

Białowieża Forest – the National Park
Białowieża National Park is an area of valuable wildlife, protected with utmost commitment by Poland, Belarus and a range of international organisations. Białowieża Forest is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, entered on the World Heritage Site list in 1979.

Historic Centre of Warsaw
The historic center of Warsaw constitutes an exception on UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage List. It’s the only urban complex almost entirely reconstructed after the WWII total destruction. The careful reconstruction was so well done that the international community demonstrated its great appreciation through putting the historic city center of Warsaw on the list of the unique world heritage sites.

Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine
Situated on the eastern edge of Eastern Europe, the transnational property numbers a selection of 16 tserkvas – churches built of horizontal wooden logs between the 16th and 19th centuries by communities of the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic faiths. time.

Auschwitz Birkenau
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial is visited by great numbers of pilgrims. Many heads of state on official visits to Poland come here to pay homage to the victims of Nazi genocide.

Tarnowskie Gory – Silver Mine
It is located in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland, one of the main mining areas of central Europe. The mine includes the entire underground mine with adits, shafts, galleries and other features of the water management system.

Kalwaria Zebrzydowska – Passion plays
The church, monastery and the pilgrimage park of the Bernardine complex in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska is the unique religious place. The Calvary, the Way of the Cross, is lined with shrines, chapels and small churches and is picturesquely set on hills and in the valley of a stream. The sanctuary is visited by approximately one million pilgrims each year. It is famous for its Passion plays.

Medieval Town of Toruń
Thanks to the great astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and to the flavor of the famous Torunian gingerbread as well as to the charm and character of one of Europe’s most beautiful old towns, Toruń is a city widely known in Poland and also far beyond its borders. Toruń’s historic core, represented by its well preserved complex of medieval architecture and the original urban layout, was included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1997.

Churches of Peace in Jawor and Świdnica
These churches, both the history of their construction and the perfect assembly of their mortise and tenon joints are just as amazing as their polychrome interior finishing. It is particularly advisable to visit the interiors, during the famous organ concerts. It is also worth mentioning that in both cities the churches are still owned by the sparse protestant communities.

Muskauer Park
The landscape park of the eccentric Prince Hermann Ludwig Heinrich von Pückler-Muskau in Bad Muskau, known on the Polish side as the Mużakowski Park in Łęknica, is one of the most outstanding achievements in European landscape architecture of the 19th century.
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Old City of Zamość
Zamość, often referred to as the Pearl of Renaissance and the City of Arcades, is a fortress established in 1580 surrounding a luxurious housing estate.

Centennial Hall in Wroclaw
Construction of the Centennial Hall is one of the turning points in the history of the utilisation of steel for reinforcing structural frames of buildings

Wooden Churches of Southern Malopolska
This southeastern region of Poland features medium-size mountains and picturesque landscapes. Here we find wooden Orthodox and Roman- Catholic churches perfectly fitted into their natural environment. Some of these churches are several hundred years old and six were entered on UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage List.

Krzemionki, the newest UNESCO site in Poland
Located in the mountain region of Świętokrzyskie, Krzemionki is an ensemble of four mining sites, dating from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age (about 3900 to 1600 BCE). The mining complex is an exceptional testimony of the importance of the prehistoric period and of flint mining for tool production in human history.

Read more about UNESCO in Poland.

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The article was written in cooperation with Polish Tourism Organisation.