In 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, Nazis destroyed completly 85% of the Warsaw Old Town. After the war Poles decided to rebuilt this the most beautiful part of their capital, carefully following preserved historic documentation, old plans, maps and photos.

Sacred places were worshipped in the Polish land as early as pagan times. Later on Christian churches were built in these and other places. Today 85% of Polish sanctuaries are connected with the cult of Our Lady. Those most frequented by Catholic pilgrims are Czestochowa (with Jasna Gora Monastery), Stary Lichen and Kalkow-Godow. Since November 2010 small town of Swiebodzin in western Poland also became important place on religious map of Poland thanks to second tallest statue of Jesus Christ in the world. The best known goal of Orthodox pilgrimages is the village of Grabarka (famous for Holy Mountain of crosses). Jewish pilgrims go mainly to Lezajsk and Krakow. Muslims have two oldest mosques at Bohoniki and Kruszyniany.

There are more than 750 museums in Poland, greatly differing in their character. Most significant for Polish cultural heritage are the museums in the royal castles: on Wawel Hill in Krakow and in Warsaw. Some museums are widely known, e.g. Lancut Castle, some are quite unheard of, like the poetess Maria Konopnicka’s manor house at Zarnowiec.

A country manor house is traditionally regarded in Poland as a typical seat of gentry. This is where the ancestral, patriotic and religious customs were maintained and the so-called Sarmatian moral values cherished. From the 16^th century onwards, picturesque manors of the landed nobility were typical in the Polish landscape.

Polish kings of the Early Modern era wielded relatively little power and had rather shallow coffers; however real power lay in the hands of the nobility. That is the reason as to why the palaces built by the wealthiest Polish families, such as the Radziwills, Potockis, Lubomirskis or Dzialynskis, repeatedly surpassed in opulence the royal residences.

Around 400 castles have survived in Poland until today. In the times of first Piast rulers, fortified settlements were built in Poland. Starting from 13^th century, many of them were replaced with castles – originally Gothic, then enlarged and modernized until the 17^th century.

Big cities like Krakow, Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw etc. with many historic relics, museums and other tourist attractions are quite well known, so in our travel guide we want to present you also some small towns and villages often very picturesque and enchanting, with typical small-town architecture. Many of them were destroyed by wars and fires, later reconstructed. Most of them are rarely visited by foreign tourists but they are certainly very interesting.