Weird Places to Visit in Poland

From the bizarre crooked forest to the weird upside down house, here are 12 weird places you should be sure to visit in Poland!

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6. Crooked Forest
This spooky, weird forest can be found in Nowe Czarnowo (nova-charnova). The forest gets its name from the strange way that they trees grow in this wood. The trees have a strange almost sickle shape to them. There are theories about why the trees are like this but, there are no definitive answers. The predominant theory is that farmers grew the trees in the particular shape for some unknown reason, most likely for building boats or furniture. There is also a theory that a powerful snowstorm could have knocked the trees this way but with all of the theories out there, no one can guess at how or why. There are 400 pines in the forest and the trees were planted in 1930 when the territory was still under German control.

5. Wroclaw (Vro-Slaf) Dwarfs
This is a fun thing to visit if you are in a scavenger hunting mood. The dwarfs are found in Wroclaw and these miniature statues began popping up around the city in 2005. The numbers of the dwarfs have been growing steadily ever since and as of 2014 there, 300 hidden around the city. The dwarfs have become such a popular tourist attraction that you can buy maps to all of the dwarfs alongside tourist maps. The dwarfs are to commemorate the Orange Alternative, which was an anti-communist movement located in Poland. Why dwarfs? The dwarf was the movement's symbol and the movement started in the 1980’s with peaceful protests and the graffiti of dwarfs around the city. A great way to supplement the exploration of the city, the treasure hunt of the dwarfs is certainly worth it.

4. Centre for Education and Regional Promotions
The Centre for Education and Regional Promotions in Szymbark, Poland is a museum that mainly functions to help preserve the culture of the Kashubians which is a West Slavic ethnic group native to the region. This crazy feat of archaeological engineering functions as one of the main attractions of the museum. It’s meant to inspire reflections about the madness of modern life. It certainly inspires a little madness just by looking at it.

3. Painted Village
The painted village is found in Zalipie ( Zali-pee) and it has become one the major tourist attractions in Poland. The village is painted in thousands of flower motifs spreading and covering the entire village. The practice started over a century ago when housewives noted that the smoke from the stove would cause soot to stain the wood of their house. The wives of the village fixed this by whitewashing their houses and then drawing these unique flower patterns when the black seeped back into the wood. Each design is different and the vibrant colors bring life to this small country village. Even when cooking technology became more advanced and there was no longer smoke seeping into the wood, the tradition carried on and the designs became more progressively more sophisticated and elaborate. There is even a yearly competition for the best design and painting.

2. Sedlec Ossuary
The Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic chapel located in Kutna Hora. It’s one of 12 World Heritage Sites and it contains the bones of 40,000 to 70,000 people. The chapel is one of the most visited tourist sites in the country and it averages over 200,000 visitors a year.

The main piece of the skull and bones artwork is considered to be the giant chandelier. The Church is still in full operation and has never shut down since the year 1278 !

1. Wieliczka Salt Mine
The Wieliczka (vel-itch-ka) Salt mine can be found in Wieliczka. The mine opened in the 13th century and it produced salt until the mining stopped in 2007. The mine was one of the world's oldest salt mines in history. The massive underground mine contains four chapels and dozens of statues, all carved out of salt by the miners. The salt mines are one of the biggest attractions in Poland and it receives an average of 1.2 million tourists per a year. The mine is protected as one Poland’s national heritage sites. The mine contains a stunning underground lake and the intricacies and size of the mine have inspired several literary interpretations of the Labyrinth. The artwork in the mine even includes a recreation of Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, carved completely out of salt.