Nowy Sącz, our nearest large town, is just 15km by road from the 1904loghouse.
There is parking in the centre, close to the main square (Rynek) and also below the old city walls, along the embankment, and elsewhere around the town.
You’ll find a large sports centre, the ground of the division one Sandecja Nowy Sącz football team (other football, handball and rugby teams are available!), a slalom course on the river popular with SKS Start Nowy Sącz, a whitewater kayaking club, plus the usual facilities – restaurants, shops, rail and bus station.
Nowy Sącz has many interesting features, including:
One of the largest marketplaces in Europe – after Kraków, the largest rynek in Poland. The late 19th century Ratusz (town hall) is in the middle of square.
Saint Margaret’s basilica, Bazylika kolegiacka Św. Małgorzaty (from the 15th century).
A 15th-century house Dom Gotycki containing a regional museum.
A gothic Franciscan church.
The Great Synagogue, dating from 1746 and now the Galeria Dawna Synagoga, contains a gallery with historical displays. There is a memorial tablet on the front in Polish, Hebrew, and Yiddish. Across the Kamienica River is the Jewish cemetery.
Saint Roch, a wooden church from the 15th century, in the Dąbrówka district.The old cemetery chapel St. Helen’s Church is of a similar style.
The partially restored ruins of a mediæval Royal Castle from the 14th century, built during the reign of Kazimierz the Great. Having been used as a German ammunition store and the site of mass executions, the castle was destroyed in 1945 at the end of World War II, taking with it most of the exhibits of the district museum . The remains of the city walls are nearby.
The open air museum or Sądecki Park Etnograficzny, a branch of the Nowy Sącz District Museum, contains a village made up of original buildings – houses, farm buildings and churches dismantled and brought from elsewhere in the area.
Covering 20 hectare and divided into four zones reflecting the architecture of the local ethnic groups, the village has a “noble’s house” at its centre.
Homes and some buildings in the villages are fully equipped. In the summer, the museum hosts exhibitions of traditional farming activities, old handicraft, crafts and folk art, annual and family rituals, songs, music and dances
Around Nowy Sącz there are a number of cycling and driving routes themed around notable wooden churches.
The mountainous country around Nowy Sącz is also popular with tourists, hikers and skiers, especially the Beskid Sądecki mountains (part of the Carpathians), of which the highest peak is Radziejowa (1,262 m (4,140.42 ft) above sea level).
Nearby popular mountain resorts include Krynica-Zdrój and Piwniczna-Zdrój (“Zdrój” means “health spa”).
15 km north of Nowy Sącz is Jezioro Rożnowskie, a reservoir 22 km long, with many dachas and camping sites.
To the north of Jezioro Rożnowskie is Ciężkowicko-Rożnowski National Park. This 17,634ha park is known for its flora, fauna and rock formations – well worth a look if you’re headed in that direction.
A short drive south of Nowy Sącz (“new Sącz”) is the inevitable “old Sącz”, Stary Sącz, founded in 1163 but smaller than Nowy Sącz with a charming cobbled market square, with a convent of Poor Clares to the east.
Visitors to Stary Sącz will enjoy the town’s rich history, unique medieval architecture and many ecclesiastical buildings.
At the fork of the rivers Dunajec and Poprad is a recreation area with fish ponds totalling 14 ha. These ponds contain plenty of fish. There are carp, trout and sanders among them. There are even rainbow trout in a special fishery. These fish attract many anglers.
Miejska Góra (The town’s Mountain) encourages hiking and cycling in beautiful wildlife surroundings.
Stary Sącz, situated in the lag of the Poprad Landscape Park is also the seat of the Park Service. One of Poland’s biggest landscape parks stretches all over the range of the mountains Radziejowa and Jaworzyna in the Beskid Sądecki region. There are many trails waiting for keen hikers. Some of them start in Stary Sącz.
1904loghouse 