UNESCO Southern Poland tour

UNESCO Southern Poland tour

Day 1.
On arrival in Krakow, Poland you are met and driven to your hotel. Then we’ll take an evening stroll through the Old Town and enjoy a welcome dinner in a restaurant. Overnight stay at a hotel. (D)

Day 2.
After breakfast you have a guided tour of Krakow, including the Krakow’s Historic Centre: Main Market Square, St. Mary’s Basilica and the historic trade pavilions of the Cloth Hall, the Royal Route, the Collegium Maius, and Wawel Hill with its renaissance Royal Castle and Cathedral. In the afternoon you’ visit in Wieliczka and Royal Salt Mine. Dinner and overnight stay at your hotel. (B, D)

Day 3.
Departure for the southern part of Little Poland where you will see some of the beautiful Wooden Churches. Your visit in Lipnica Murowana built in XVth century. Transfer to your hotel in Pieniny Mountains region. In the afternoon possibly a raft cruise on Dunajec river along the Dunajec River Gorge, which is submitted on the Tentative List of UNESCO WHS. Regional dinner in Highlanders’ style and overnight stay at your hotel. (B, D)

Day 4.
Today we’ll visit in another wooden church from the UNESCO World Heritage List in Dębno, built in XVth century. Next we’ll transfer to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, famous for the Mannerist Architectural and Park Landscape Complex and Pilgrimage Park. Your visit in the complex may include a Holy Mass. Dinner and overnight stay at a hotel. (B, D)

Day 5.
Departure for the next point on your World Heritage List in Poland – Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Your visit in the Museum includes a guided tour in Auschwitz, Birkenau and a historic movie. In the afternoon wd drive to Wrocław in the Lower Silesia region. On your way you will be able to see the Upper Silesia region – famous as an important Polish XIXth and XXth century industrial region with coal mines and iron works. Dinner and overnight stay at your hotel. (B, D)

Day 6.
Today your visit in Wrocław – the capital of Lower Silesia region - will start near Centennial Hall, added to the UNESCO list in 2006. Next short sightseeing walk at the Old Town of Wrocław. Afternoon departure to Świdnica for your visit in one of the Churches of Peace. Dinner and overnight stay at your hotel. (B, D)

Day 7.
After breakfast, departure for Jawor where you will see the second Church of Peace built after 1648 as a result of compromise between Catholics and Protestants after the “30-year war”. Your tour continues toward the Polish-German border where you will see the last UNESCO point on your route – Muskauer Park. The park has been included in the list as an example of cross-border cultural collaboration between Poland and Germany, what you will see is special way because of the pass control abolishment according to Schengen Agreement. Dinner and overnight at your hotel. (B, D)

Day 8.
Breakfast. Your departure for your next part of European tour or return drive to Krakow for your flight. (B)

Tour date: any on your request – we suggested any between March – October 2024

Tour price:
USD 2750 / person (2-3 person group)
USD 1760 / person (5-6 person group)

Book your tour or send request by e-mail: grzegorz.b@excitingpoland.com

Price includes: transfer by luxury coach / van / car according to the tour program, service of professional English speaking tour director, accommodation (7) in selected 3*/4* hotels in twin rooms, breakfasts (7) and dinners (7), service of English speaking local guides in visited cities, reservations for entrance tickets according to the program, taxes and porter services at the hotels, entrance tickets according to the tour program, Almatur - UNESCO certificate for your UNESCO tour. B = Breakfast, D = Dinner, when noted.

Additional info and fees: additional services for pre- and post-tour stay on request, single room and double bed available on request, personal orders and possible tips for driver and tour director not included. Read more about UNESCO criteria here.

Reservation request

Cracow- an ancient magic city.
Cracow offers a wide spectrum of museums, art galleries full of exhibitions, theatres, historic cellars, clubs, cafes & restaurants with live music, is an exciting destination for the travelers on the world map!
The city’s cultural heritage is mirrored in its intellectual achievements – the Jagiellonian University is the oldest in Poland. The student population of the city numbers almost 100,000 and this large student population fires a lively nightlife scene that burns brightly in the atmospheric cellar bars away from the tourists above. Cracow has sharply contrasting seasons with cold, snowy winters and fresh springs and autumns. Visitors should beware of the locals’ use of the word fresh – an optimistic reference to blatantly cold weather. The labyrinthine cellars of the Old Town are an ideal place to escape the winter chill. However, come summer, the quintessential Cracow experience is relaxing in a pavement café on the main square enjoying one of the long and balmy nights.

Cracow (Krakow) is now well established as a major tourist destination. At the height of summer, Poland’s fourth largest city throngs with tour groups, all manner of tourist tack and countless pavement cafés that seem to occupy every cobble of the main square. Out of season, late at night or even in the first slivers of morning light, it is clear why so many people flock to visit. This magical city, situated in the southeast of the country, between the Jura uplands and the Tatra Mountains, on the banks of the Wisla (Vistula) River, has one of the best-preserved medieval city centres in Europe. Dozens of churches cover almost every architectural period and are surrounded by monasteries and abbeys – walking through the Old Town streets is like drifting back through the musty pages of a historical novel.

Cracow – a tourist horn of plenty
Cracow, Poland's former royal capital, is one of the most attractive spots on the tourist map of Europe. This is a place where legends, history and modernity intertwine. The city, which lies on the banks of the Vistula River, is famous for its priceless historical monuments of culture and art.

PHOTO GALLERY

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Wieliczka Salt Mine
(inscribed according to criteria (iv))

This deposit of rock salt in Wieliczka-Bochnia has been mined since the 13th century. Spread over nine levels, it has 300 km of galleries with works of art, altars, and statues sculpted in the salt, making a fascinating pilgrimage into the past of a major industrial undertaking.

Information copied from UNESCO web site - http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pl/

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Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland
(inscribed according to criteria (iii) and (iv))

The wooden churches of southern Little Poland represent outstanding examples of the different aspects of medieval church-building traditions in Roman Catholic culture. Built using the horizontal log technique, common in eastern and northern Europe since the Middle Ages, these churches were sponsored by noble families and became status symbols. They offered an alternative to the stone structures erected in urban centres.

Information copied from UNESCO web site - http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pl/

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Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
(inscribed according to criteria (ii) and (iv)

Kalwaria Zebrzydowska is a breathtaking cultural landscape of great spiritual significance. Its natural setting – in which a series of symbolic places of worship relating to the Passion of Jesus Christ and the life of the Virgin Mary was laid out at the beginning of the 17th century – has remained virtually unchanged. It is still today a place of pilgrimage.

Information copied from UNESCO web site - http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pl/

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Auschwitz-Birkenau
(inscribed according to criteria (vi))

The fortified walls, barbed wire, platforms, barracks, gallows, gas chambers and cremation ovens show the conditions within which the Nazi genocide took place in the former concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest in the Third Reich. According to historical investigations, 1.5 million people, among them a great number of Jews, were systematically starved, tortured and murdered in this camp, the symbol of humanity's cruelty to its fellow human beings in the 20th century.

Information copied from UNESCO web site - http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pl/

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Wrocław – Centennial Hall
(inscribed according to criteria (i), (ii), (iv))

The Centennial Hall, a landmark in the history of reinforced concrete architecture, was erected in 1911-1913 by the architect Max Berg as a multi-purpose recreational building, situated in the Exhibition Grounds. In form it is a symmetrical quatrefoil with a vast circular central space that can seat some 6,000 persons. The 23m-high dome is topped with a lantern in steel and glass. The Centennial Hall is a pioneering work of modern engineering and architecture, which exhibits an important interchange of influences in the early 20th century, becoming a key reference in the later development of reinforced concrete structures.

Information copied from UNESCO web site - http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pl/

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Churches of Peace in Jawor and Świdnica
(inscribed according to criteria (iii), (iv), (vi))

The Churches of Peace in Jawor and Swidnica, the largest timber-framed religious buildings in Europe, were built in the former Silesia in the mid-17th century, amid the religious strife that followed the Peace of Westphalia. Constrained by the physical and political conditions, the Churches of Peace bear testimony to the quest for religious freedom and are a rare expression of Lutheran ideology in an idiom generally associated with the Catholic Church.

Information copied from UNESCO web site - http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pl/

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Park Muzakowski
(inscribed according to criteria (i), (iv))

A landscaped park of 559.9 ha astride the Neisse River and the border between Poland and Germany, it was created by Prince Hermann von Puckler-Muskau from 1815 to 1844. Blending seamlessly with the surrounding farmed landscape, the park pioneered new approaches to landscape design and influenced the development of landscape architecture in Europe and America. Designed as a ‘painting with plants’, it did not seek to evoke classical landscapes, paradise, or some lost perfection, instead using local plants to enhance the inherent qualities of the existing landscape. This integrated landscape extends into the town of Muskau with green passages that formed urban parks framing areas for development. The town thus became a design component in a utopian landscape. The site also features a reconstructed castle, bridges and an arboretum.

Information copied from UNESCO web site - http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pl/

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A highlanders’ raft is made of five wooden dugouts joined together. This is how tourists travel down the rapids of the Dunajec River, admiring the most picturesque sights of the Pieniny Mountains. Every now and then the river traverses sections of breathtaking beauty. The lime peaks looming overhead soar up to 300 metres. The Dunajec meanders and it often becomes difficult to follow the direction of the watercourse. Fortunately, the highlander helmsmen know how to manage their fragile rafts, taking them safely to the final destination. The landing stage is reached after three hours of a great, unforgettable adventure.

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The Criteria for Selection

To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. These criteria are explained in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention which, besides the text of the Convention, is the main working tool on World Heritage. The criteria are regularly revised by the Committee to reflect the evolution of the World Heritage concept itself.
Until the end of 2004, World Heritage sites were selected on the basis of six cultural and four natural criteria. With the adoption of the revised Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, only one set of ten criteria exists.

	Cultural criteria						Natural criteria
Operational Guidelines 2002	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv)	(v)	(vi)	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv)
Operational Guidelines 2005	(i)	(ii)	(iii)	(iv)	(v)	(vi)	(viii)	(ix)	(vii)	(x)

Selection criteria:
i. to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius;
ii. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design;
iii. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared;
iv. to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history;
v. to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change;
vi. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria);
vii. to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;
viii. to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features;
ix. to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals;
x. to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.

The protection, management, authenticity and integrity of properties are also important considerations.
Since 1992 significant interactions between people and the natural environment have been recognized as cultural landscapes.

Information copied from UNESCO web site - http://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria

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UNESCO heritage tours / UNESCO Southern Poland tour

UNESCO Southern Poland tour