50 places you must see being in Poland (part 2)

Dolina Narwi

Swamp Narew Valley, called the Polish Amazonia, is one of Europe's last natural, regularly flooded valleys. Created here Narew National Park is a veritable refuge of peace, and above all, a paradise for bird lovers. Ornithologists counted on its territory more than 200 species of birds. Park is best explored by boat or kayak. By car or by bike you can ride an attractive bypass with many vantage points along the way.

Puszcza Białowieska

"Białowieża Forest is an ancient woodland that straddles the border between two countries, Belarus and Poland. It is one of the last and largest remaining parts of the immense primaeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain.
The forest is home to 800 European bisons (wisents), the continent's heaviest land animals. A security fence keeps the Belarusian and Polish bison herds physically and genetically separated.
This UNESCO World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve is located within parts of the Brest Voblast (Kamianiec and Pruzhany districts) and Hrodna Voblast (Svislach district) in Belarus, and on the Polish side, near the town of Białowieża in the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
On the Polish side, part of the Białowieża Forest is protected as the Białowieża National Park, with general area of about 105 km2 (41 sq mi). Guided tours into the strictly controlled areas of the park can be arranged on foot, bike or by horse-drawn carriage. Approximately 120,000 - 150,000 tourists visit the Polish part of the forest annually. Among the group-offers are the bird watching with local ornithologist, watching bison in their natural environment, and sledge and carriage rides with a bonfire."

source: en.wikipedia.org

Kraków

Krakow is a city full of monuments world class, and the city where you can have fun, with an interesting offer of cultural, cool pubs and clubs. Krakow has its own special atmosphere, especially the historic district of Kazimierz.

Błędne Skały Nature Reserve is located in the Stołowe Mountains and covers an area of 21 hectares. It is a labyrinth, made of the amazing rock formations, narrow passages, crevices and tunnels, between which run up to 10-meter corridor. There are rocks with amazing shapes. We can distinguish the head, fungi, high towers, gates and stone figures of sandstone.

Rynek we Wrocławiu

The Market Square, Wrocław is a medieval market square in Wrocław, now the heart of a pedestrian zone.
The buildings around the square are built according to different styles.
The market was founded according to Magdeburg law as early as the rule of Henry I the Bearded between 1214 and 1232. Over time, the patricians' houses appeared and by the middle of the 14th century they had formed a closed construction with the limits of the plots defined.

In the 19th century the square was connected to the tram lines, at first a horse-drawn system, but after 1892 electric. Through to the end of the 1970s, cars were able to drive through along an east-west axis. Between 1996 and 2000 the square was resurfaced, while the east side, the last to be accessible to cars, was pedestrianised.

source: en.wikipedia.org

Jaskinia Raj

Paradise Cave is a horizontal limestone cave in Poland located in the hill Malik, to the south of Kielce, Świętokrzyskie Voivodship.
The cave has a length of 240 m and vertical range of 9.5 m; however, only 180 m and 2 entrances is open to visitors. Despite its small size, it is regarded as one of Poland's most beautiful caves. Its corridors lead through five chambers ornamented with stalactites, stalagmites and columns of rock created over thousands of years. A maximum of fifteen people are admitted every fifteen minutes to the cave under a guide's protection. This is to maintain an internal temperature of eight to ten degrees Celsius to preserve the cave's historical value. The cave's humidity is above 95 percent. Before the entrance there is an exhibition of archeological and paleontological findings from the cave that include prehistoric tools (the cave was inhabited by Neanderthals) and animal bones. It is illuminated by an optical fiber.
The five chambers of the cave were formed during the Devonian era, approximately 350 million years ago. Inside, there are traces of occupancy by Neanderthal men dating back 50 to 60 thousand years. There were signs of cave bears, woolly rhinoceros, and mammoths having previously inhabited the cave as well.

source: en.wikipedia.org

Roztocze i Roztoczańskie Szumy

Roztocze is a range of hills in east-central Poland and western Ukraine which rises from the Lublin Upland and extends southeastward through Solska Wilderness and across the border into Ukrainian Podolia. Low and rolling, the range is approximately 180 km long and 14 km wide. Its highest peak within Poland is Wielki Dział at 390 meters. In Poland Roztocze lies in the Lublin and Podkarpackie voivodships, while the portion in Ukraine extends all the way to the outskirts of Lviv and in 2011 it has become a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The Polish portion of the range makes up the Roztocze National Park.
Szumy is nothing like the waterfalls of the Roztocze rivers. In this part of the Polish local calling them by "szumy" has become very popular. In addition to the waterfalls landscape of West Roztocze, which is located on Polish territory, shape deep even 20 meters loess gorges, undulating fields and wooded hills. After Roztocze run two popular horse tracts and leading to Lviv bike trail.

source: en.wikipedia.org

Stare Miasto w Warszawie

Warsaw's Old Town is the oldest historic district of the city. It is one of Warsaw's most prominent tourist attractions.

The heart of the area is the Old Town Market Place, with its restaurants, cafés and shops. Surrounding streets feature medieval architecture such as the city walls, the Barbican and St. John's Cathedral.

Warsaw's Old Town has been placed on the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites as "an outstanding example of a near-total reconstruction of a span of history covering the 13th to the 20th century.

source: en.wikipedia.org

Pałac Krzyżtopór

Krzyżtopór is a castle located in the village of Ujazd, Iwaniska commune, Opatów County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It was originally built by a Polish nobleman and Voivode of Sandomierz, Krzysztof Ossoliński (1587-1645). The castle was partially destroyed during the Swedish invasion known as The Deluge in 1655, and then reduced to ruin during the war of the Bar Confederation by the Russians in 1770.

The very name of the complex is a mysterious one. Krzysztof Ossoliński officially named it Krzysztofory, which is derived from Latin word Christophoros. Later, the name changed to Krzyżtopór, which is a compounding of two Polish words – krzyż ("cross", a symbol of the Catholic faith and Ossoliński’s policies) and topór ("axe", the charge from the family's coat of arms). Both symbols can be seen on the gate of the castle.

The castle is a typical example of the so-called palazzo in fortezza – an intermingling of both palace and fortress. The total size of the complex is 1.3 hectares; the length of perimeter walls is 700 meters; the total area of all interior rooms is around 70 000 square meters. Reportedly, the castle once had 365 windows (as many as days of the year), 52 rooms (as many as weeks of the year) and 12 ballrooms (as many as months of the year). For defensive purposes, the castle was erected upon a rocky hill, making it impossible for an enemy to organize an underground attack.

Krzyżtopór was furnished with amenities that were rarely seen in the 17th century, such as ventilation and heating system, and unique waterworks that provided all rooms with fresh water. Allegedly, the ceiling in one of dining rooms was made up of an aquarium containing exotic fish. Additionally, a system of dumbwaiters carried food from pantries to the upper floors.
Though it is regarded as a permanent ruin, since around 90 percent of the walls have been preserved.

source: en.wikipedia.org

Plaża na Helu

Hel Peninsula is a 35-km-long sand bar peninsula in northern Poland separating the Bay of Puck from the open Baltic Sea. It is located in Puck County of the Pomeranian Voivodeship.

source: en.wikipedia.org