Discover Gorlice

Gorlice offers several themes to consider for a stay: a chapel connected with an event in the history of technology, a regional museum in a historic townhouse, religious architecture, a military cemetery and a cycle-path section in a park. These places and the route offer different ways to explore history and enjoy activities. When planning your trip, you can therefore choose between architectural history, remembrance, oil history and a bike ride.

Culture, architectural history and technological heritage

At the intersection of ul. Węgierska and ul. Kościuszki stands a chapel commemorating the event of 1854, when the world's first kerosene street lamp was lit in Gorlice. The chapel itself has a barrel-shaped plinth and depicts the Man of Sorrows beneath a canopy. The building's design thus brings together the historical occasion it commemorates and religious imagery. The chapel is a tangible starting point if you are interested in Gorlice's technological history and the forms its places of remembrance take.

The PTTK Regional Museum is housed in a townhouse built in 1780 and remodelled in the Classicist style in 1874. The two dates mark different phases in the building's history: 1780 is when the house was built, and 1874 when it was later remodelled. Today, the Regional Museum is located in this building. This allows you to consider the site both as a museum and in terms of its own architectural history.

The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (pw. Narodzenia Najświętszej Marii Panny) also has a clearly defined construction period: it was built between 1875 and 1890 to designs by Franciszek Pavoni and Maksymilian Nitsch in the Neo-Renaissance style. Together with the townhouse, it offers a comparison between two building histories: the townhouse has dated construction and later remodelling phases, while the church has a continuous construction period and was designed by two architects. If you are interested in architecture, you can make these differences a focus of your trip.

Places of remembrance and oil history

Military Cemetery No. 91 is located on the so-called Cemetery Hill in Gorlice. It commemorates soldiers who fell between November 1914 and May 1915. Its commemorative context is therefore clearly defined in time. Compared with the chapel, which commemorates the event of 1854, the cemetery relates to a much later period. The two places represent different historical themes: a connection to technological history and remembrance of fallen soldiers.

The MAGDALENA open-air museum of the oil industry was designed to recreate the history of the Gorlice oil district as faithfully as possible and preserve its memorabilia. Its concept focuses on the history of an oil district and its memorabilia, while the chapel commemorates a single event from 1854. You can therefore encounter oil history in two different contexts: through the chapel's connection to kerosene lighting and through the museum's focus on the district's history and memorabilia.

Cycle path in the park

Another activity is a signposted section of a cycle path in the park. It is 2.5 kilometres long. The stated distance gives you a specific figure to help plan your ride; before setting out, it is advisable to check the path's current condition. A bike ride thus adds a distinct focus to Gorlice's historical and architectural themes.

Discover more destinations: Bystra, Lipinki, Klimkówka, Bobowa, Ropa, Rożnowice, Kunkowa, Biecz.

For the main travel overview: Gorlice.