Olkusz: Mining History, Art and Active Recreation

Olkusz combines mining history, art and leisure activities. In the Old Town, you can explore historical themes and exhibitions; other activities and routes are located across the city and the surrounding municipality. If you’re looking for a hotel in Olkusz, you can choose one based on the interests you want to shape your stay: history, collections or outdoor activities.

Mining History in the Old Town

The Silver Juggler Trail is an educational and historical path in Olkusz’s Old Town. It features 18 miner figures. The trail also includes more than 130 replicas of Olkusz trojaks—coins bearing the image of King Sigismund III Vasa—set into the pavement. The figures and coin replicas highlight different aspects of mining history.

The “Podziemny Olkusz” exhibition also focuses on mining. Visitors can set models and replicas of historical mining equipment in motion themselves. One presentation is housed in the cellar rooms of the former 14th-century town hall. The other is in the cellar rooms of the former Royal Quarter, which once housed the seat of the Olkusz mining authorities.

Church, Art and Collections

The Basilica of St. Andrew is a Gothic church built at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its most valuable work of art is a Gothic winged altarpiece from the late 15th century; it is one of only four such altarpieces in Poland. The basilica therefore offers a distinct art-historical focus alongside the exhibitions on mining history.

The permanent exhibition at GSW BWA in Olkusz comprises around 300 works of contemporary Polish art. It mainly features painting, graphic art, sculpture, ceramics and photography. The Museum of the Works of Władysław Wołkowski offers a different artistic context: it is housed in the historic 19th-century Machnicki Manor and holds the largest collection of his works in Poland.

Other collections focus on natural history. The Collection of Minerals of the Olkusz Region and Fossils of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland comprises several thousand exhibits, including valuable ores and minerals as well as limestone dating back 150 million years. The main attraction at the Firefighting Museum of the Olkusz Region is “Jaśek,” a historic fire engine from the Second World War.

Leisure and Routes: City or Municipality

The “Silver Park” recreation and landscape park in Olkusz offers children, teenagers and adults opportunities for active recreation. The “Zagadki olkuskiej starówki” city game takes you through the Old Town along a route of around 1.5 km. The leisure pool complex has the 64 m-long “Anakonda” water slide, which ends in a 1 m-deep plunge pool. These activities offer different options: a city game, active recreation and a water slide.

For a cycling trip from Olkusz to Rabsztyn Castle and back, the “Od olkuskich gwarków do rabsztyńskich rycerzy” cycling game offers a 14 km circular route. The municipality of Olkusz has other routes, too: the 38 km blue “Okrężny” cycling trail connects historical and natural attractions, including the ruins of Rabsztyn Castle, Januszkowa Mountain and the springs of the Sztoła River. The green-marked “Wschodni” cycling trail leads to the municipality’s northeastern areas and forms a 19 km circular route together with “Okrężny.”

The routes also differ considerably in length and scope: a 5 km educational trail runs through the Pazurek Nature Reserve, while the black “Szlak Kordonu Granicznego” cycling trail forms a 20 km circular route. The red PTTK Eagle Nests Trail runs through the municipality of Olkusz. This lets you distinguish between a short Old Town game, a circular route from Olkusz to the castle and routes across the municipality, without treating their different geographical scales as equivalent.

Explore More Destinations

Explore more destinations: Zawada, Olkusz, Osiek, Bukowno, Małyszyce, Małobądz, Wolbrom, Klucze, Jeżówka, Dłużec, Zabagnie, Golczowice.

Return to the main travel overview: Lesser Poland.