What to See in Karpacz - Top Sights and Attractions

Hiking destination on a country border. Sněžka or Śnieżka is a mountain on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland, the most prominent point of the Silesian Ridge in the Giant Mountains. At 1,603.3 metres, its summit is the highest point in the Czech Republic, in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in the Giant Mountains and in the entire Sudetes.^[1]

Lake. Mały Staw is a natural lake of glacial origin in the Krkonoše mountains in western Poland. It is situated in the Polish Karkonosze National Park at the bottom of the cirque, on the southern slope of the Smogornia mountain, 1 km south of Wielki Staw.

With its area of 2.8 hectares, it is the second biggest glacial lake in the whole range. Its depth reaches 7 m. The place is accessible from the Polish-Czech Friendship Trail (red marks) and a blue marked short distance trail from Równia pod Śnieżką. A mountain hut Samotnia is situated on the north shore.^[2]

Chapel. St. Lawrence's Chapel – a Roman Catholic chapel located on the peak of Śnieżka; in Poland. The chapel is located in south-west of Poland, in the eastern Karkonosze Mountains, on the peak of Śnieżka – the highest peak of the Karkonosze Mountains, located around 5.3 kilometres west of the centre of Karpacz.^[3]

Norwegian-style wooden church building. Vang Stave Church is a stave church which was bought by King Frederick William IV of Prussia and transferred from Vang in the Valdres region of Norway and re-erected in 1842 in Brückenberg near Krummhübel in Silesia, now Karpacz in the Karkonosze mountains of Poland. It was originally used by a congregation belonging to the Church of Norway, then the Evangelical Church of Prussia, and now serves as the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland.

The church is a four-post single-nave stave church originally built around 1200 in the parish of Vang in the Valdres region of Norway.^[4]

Large high altitude mountain lake. Wielki Staw - post glacial natural lake in the Krkonoše mountains, in western Poland. It is situated in the Karkonosze National Park at the bottom of the cirque, on the southern slope of the Smogornia mountain.

With its area of 8.3 hectares, it is the biggest glacial lake in the whole range. Its depth reaches 25 m, the shores are covered in subalpine species. Waters of the lake host rare species, some of them even extinct like Isoetes lacustris. Due to the regulations of a nature reserve, the object is closed and can be watched only from the top of the cirque. The place is accessible from the Polish–Czech Friendship Trail (red marks).^[5]

Museum

Museum

Gravity anomaly in Karpacz - a phenomenon observed in Karpacz Górny on Strażacka Street, involving the apparent spontaneous movement of objects and liquids along a highway uphill. The phenomenon is an example of an optical illusion, the so-called magical hill - in fact, the road lowers on the slope of the valley, although it leads uphill.

Skalny Stoł - the highest peak of the Kowarski Ridge in the Krkonoše Mountains, at its western end, on the Polish-Czech border.

Monuments and statues

Samotnia - PTTK (Polish Tourist Country-Lovers' Association) hostel named after Waldemar Siemaszko above the Little Pond, in the Little Pond Basin, in the Karkonosze Mountains.

The hostel can be reached via the blue trail from the Wang Temple (about 1 hour) or descend from Strzecha Akademicka (about 10 minutes). Currently, the hostel has 49 beds. There is also a buffet, a tourist information point, a GOPR point and a climbing wall.