UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Poland
Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael
The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael in Haczów has original Gothic polychrome decoration from the late 15th century, although the building has been dated to the previous century. At the beginning of the 17th century the church was enclosed by an earthen defensive rampart. Inside a valuable figural wall paintings dating from 1494 can be seen. It is believed that the Haczów church is the biggest Got ...
Founded: 1388 |
Location:
Haczów, Poland
St. James Church
St. James Church dates from the seventeenth or eighteenth-century. Together with different tserkvas it is designated as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site 'Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine'. The tserkva in Powroźnik has existed since around 1600, but only a part of the former structure remains, arranged into the sacristy of the present tserkva. The architecture of the present ...
Founded: 17th century |
Location:
Powroźnik, Poland
St. Paraskevi Church
St. Paraskevi Church is wooden church located in the village of Kwiatoń from the nineteenth-century, which together with different tserkvas is designated as part of the UNESCO Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine. The tserkov was built in the second half of the seventeenth-century. The date of the completion of the tserkov was dated at 1700. The tower was built in 1743. The date for the comp ...
Founded: 1700 |
Location:
Kwiatoń, Poland
St. Michael Archangel's Church
St. Michael Archangel"s Church in Smolnik was built the eighteenth-century, which together with different tserkvas is designated as part of the UNESCO Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine. The first reference to the existence of an Eastern Orthodox Church tserkva in Smolnik comes from a register in 1589 of the Sanok Land. It is presumed that the wooden tserkva was built at the start o ...
Founded: 1791 |
Location:
Smolnik, Poland
All Saints Church
The most valuable monument in Blizne is wooden Church of All Saints from the middle of 15th century. Church was built in the Late Gothic style, of stromal construction, on a stone foundation. In 17th century was surrounded by defensive ramparts. The Church has a rich painted decoration: the remarkable Last Judgement scene is from this period. In the early 18th century there were changes to interior decorations and furnitu ...
Founded: 15th century |
Location:
Blizne, Poland
St. Michael Archangel's Church
St. Michael Archangel"s Church in Turzańsk together with different tserkvas is designated as part of the UNESCO Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine. The tserkva in Turzańsk, established as an Eastern Orthodox Church tsekva, later Uniate, was referenced in the first half of the sixteenth-century. The present tserkva was built at the start of the nineteenth-century in 1801, and later ...
Founded: 1801 |
Location:
Turzańsk, Poland
Church of the Archangel Michael
The Church of the Archangel Michael in Binarowa was built around 1500. In 1595 a tower was added to the west end, and at the beginning of the 17th century the church was enclosed by an external arcade. Window openings were enlarged and new polychrome decoration replaced the earlier stencilled work. The church is decorated with numerous sculptures and paintings of angels. The church is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Si ...
Founded: 1500 |
Location:
Binarowa, Poland
Protection of Our Most Holy Lady Church
Protection of Our Most Holy Lady Church in Owczary, from the seventeenth-century, which together with different tserkvas is designated as part of the UNESCO Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine. The tserkva in Owczary was raised in 1653. The tserkva is the second building of its type in this location - the first collapsed due to quicksand in its foundations. In 1701, the tserkva"s chan ...
Founded: 1653 |
Location:
Owczary, Poland
St. Paraskevi Church
St. Paraskevi Church in Radruż dates from the sixteenth-century, which together with different tserkvas is designated as part of the UNESCO Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine. The tserkva belongs to the oldest and best kept wooden sacramental architecture tserkvas in Poland. Part of the prestigious World Monuments Fund (WMF) list of buildings worthy of preservation and financial sponsorshi ...
Founded: 16th century |
Location:
Radruż, Poland
St. Michael Archangel's Church
St. Michael Archangel"s Church in Brunary is a Gothic, wooden church from the eighteenth-century, which together with different tserkvas is designated as part of the UNESCO Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine. The first tserkva in Brunary was raised in 1616, when a Uniate parish was founded in the village. A new tserkva was built in 1653, while the present in the eighteenth-century ...
Founded: 18th century |
Location:
Brunary, Poland
St. Leonard's Church
The Church of St Leonard was built at the end of the 15th century. From this date have survived parts of the polychrome decoration stencilled on the ceiling of the nave. The church was situated outside the defensive wall of the township and had the function of a cemetery church, a function that it still fulfils. It has been renovated many times, but this has not significantly affected its form or spatial arrangement The ...
Founded: 15th century |
Location:
Lipnica Murowana, Poland
Mother of God Church
Mother of God Church is wooden church located in the village of Chotyniec from the seventeenth-century, which together with different tserkvas is designated as part of the UNESCO Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine. The first document recording the existence of the tserkva originates from 1671. The tserkva is one of numerous active Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church tserkvas in Poland, which s ...
Founded: 1671 |
Location:
Chotyniec, Poland
Church of St. Phillip and St. Jacob
St. Philip and St. Jacob the Apostles' Church in Sękowa was built at the beginning of 16th century. It was made using manually hewed larch wood covered with shingle. The church is a one-nave one with the chancel closed off at three sides. The interior is meagre, since the church was devastated during the wartime at the turn of 1914 and 1915. Wooden elements from the church were used to build trenches and consumed as fire ...
Founded: 1520 |
Location:
Sękowa, Poland
Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Photo from Flickr, copyright Mr Phil Price
Historic Site of the week
Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre
Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.
Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.