Lublin (population 340,000) is the largest city in eastern Poland and the ninth-largest in the country — a historic university city on the Bystrzyca River, 170km southeast of Warsaw, 80km from the Ukrainian border. Lublin was the capital of the Polish Kingdom's eastern territories from the 14th century and one of the most important cities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the largest state in 16th-century Europe): the Union of Lublin (1569 — the treaty that formally united the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the third-largest state in the world at the time) was signed in Lublin. The city was also one of the most significant centres of Jewish culture in the pre-war world: the 'Jerusalem of the Kingdom of Poland' — the phrase used by the Jewish community to describe Lublin (a city where approximately 40,000 Jews (30% of the population) lived before 1939); Lublin was home to the Yeshiva Chakhmei Lublin (the Academy of the Sages of Lublin — the most important rabbinical academy in Europe, built 1924–1930 by the Rebbe Meir Shapiro). The Nazi occupation established the Majdanek concentration camp 4km from the city centre — one of the only Nazi death camps adjacent to a major city, now the most accessible Holocaust memorial site in Poland (the crematoria and gas chambers are preserved in situ). The Lublin Old Town (Stare Miasto) is a remarkably intact medieval townscape with the 14th-century castle and the finest Lublin Renaissance architecture in Poland. Best months: April–October.
Stare Miasto Lublin (Lublin Old Town — the medieval urban core on a hilltop above the Bystrzyca River, surrounded by the remnants of the 14th-century defensive walls): the townscape (Lublin has the most complete surviving example of 'Lublin Renaissance' architecture — a distinctive regional architectural style that developed in the Lublin region in the late 16th–early 17th century, combining Italian Renaissance architectural forms with distinctively Polish-Lithuanian decorative elements (the most characteristic feature: the attics (attyki) — the ornamental parapets above the roofline that are decorated with blind arcades, obelisks, and figurative sculpture in a style that has no direct Italian parallel; the Lublin Renaissance attic is considered the most original contribution of Polish architecture to European architectural history)): the key buildings: (1) the Krakowskie Przedmieście (the main commercial street of the old town — lined with Lublin Renaissance townhouses and the finest baroque churches in the city); (2) the Rynek (the market square — the central square of the old town with the Old Town Hall (the 16th-century building with the characteristic Lublin Renaissance attic)); (3) the Dominican Church (the most important church in Lublin: a 13th-century Dominican monastery church with the finest Gothic interior in the city). Free.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBrama Grodzka (the Grodzka Gate — 'NN Theatre': the 14th-century Gothic gate in the Lublin city wall that was the historical connection between the Polish (Christian) city and the Jewish quarter (the gate literally separated the two communities for 400 years); the gate today is the home of the NN Theatre (Teatr NN — the most important cultural institution in Lublin for preserving the memory of the Jewish community: the NN Theatre (named for the 'NN' (nomen nescio — Latin: 'unknown name') designation given to unidentified concentration camp victims) uses the Grodzka Gate building as an ongoing documentary and cultural project: the walls of the gate passageway are lined with photographs of the Jewish community of Lublin (the 'faces of the city' project — the photographs recovered from before-war archives and family collections): 10,000 photographs of the Jewish residents of Lublin who were murdered in the Majdanek death camp and the Sobibor extermination camp)). Free.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideZamek Lubelski (Lublin Castle — the 14th-century royal castle on a hill overlooking the Old Town and the Bystrzyca valley): the history (the castle was the seat of the Polish King's regional court and the location of the most important political event in Polish history: the signing of the Union of Lublin (July 1, 1569) — the treaty that united the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (a state covering approximately 1 million km², from the Baltic to the Black Sea, with a population of 11 million (the largest state in Europe in the late 16th century)); the castle: (1) the Chapel of the Holy Trinity (the most important element of the castle: a 14th-century Gothic royal chapel with the complete cycle of Byzantine-Ruthenian frescoes (1418) — the finest surviving cycle of Byzantine frescoes in Poland and one of the most important in Central Europe; the frescoes were commissioned by King Władysław II Jagiełło and painted by Ruthenian (Ukrainian) masters); (2) the Lublin Museum (the regional history museum occupying the former prison building of the castle — the prison where Polish independence fighters were imprisoned by the Russian Empire)). Adults PLN 20.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideUl. Szeroka ('Wide Street' — the main street of the former Jewish quarter of Lublin, the Podzamcze (the 'Under-the-Castle' area, the Jewish district of pre-war Lublin)): the pre-war Lublin Jewish quarter was one of the most important in Europe: (1) the Maharshal Synagogue (the site of the synagogue of the Rabbi Shlomo Luria (the Maharshal, 1510–1573 — the greatest rabbinical authority in 16th-century Poland; his most important work: the 'Yam shel Shlomo' (Sea of Solomon) — a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud that became a foundational text of Ashkenazi Jewish law)); (2) the Maharam Synagogue (the site of the synagogue of the Rabbi Meir of Lublin (the Maharam, 1558–1616)); (3) the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva (the Academy of the Sages of Lublin — see Day 2); the current Szeroka Street (the buildings that contained the synagogues were demolished by the Nazi occupation in 1942; the empty lots are marked by memorial plaques and the NN Theatre installations). Free.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCebularz lubelski (the most famous food product of Lublin — a round flatbread topped with caramelised onion and poppy seeds: a circular flatbread (approximately 20cm diameter), made from a yeasted white flour dough (softer and lighter than a pizza dough), topped before baking with a mixture of fried onion (cooked until translucent and sweet, not browned), poppy seeds (the black poppy seed (Papaver somniferum) is the most important seed in Polish baking — used in the makowiec (poppy seed roll) at Christmas and in the cebularz), and salt; the cebularz is baked in a wood-fired oven until the edges are golden and the onion topping is caramelised; the cebularz lublinskie has EU Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status (2014) — the Lublin cebularz is the only bakery product in eastern Poland with this protection)). Traditional Lublin restaurants: Czarna Owca (Ul. Grodzka — the finest traditional restaurant in the Lublin Old Town). PLN 3–5 per cebularz; PLN 30–50 dinner.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePaństwowe Muzeum na Majdanku (the Majdanek State Museum — ul. Droga Męczenników Majdanka 67; the second-largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp in occupied Poland (after Auschwitz-Birkenau); the most accessible Holocaust memorial site in Poland (the camp is located only 4km from the Lublin city centre, on a tramway line (Line 153 from the city centre, 20 min, PLN 4.80)); the camp (established October 1941; operated until July 22, 1944 (the date of the Soviet liberation of Majdanek — the first major Nazi camp to be liberated by the Allied forces)); the victims (approximately 60,000–80,000 people murdered at Majdanek (the historical controversy: the total number killed at Majdanek has been the subject of scholarly debate; the original Polish estimate (1944–1970) was 1.5–1.7 million; the revised historical consensus (1990s–2000s) is 60,000–80,000; the principal methods of murder: the Zyklon B gas chambers (7 gas chambers) and the Erntefest massacre (November 3, 1943 — the largest single-day mass shooting of the Holocaust: 18,000 Jews shot in the Majdanek area in one day))); the site (the camp is preserved in an extraordinary state: the gas chambers, the crematoria (the original chimney stack is visible from the public road), the barracks, and the guard towers are intact). Free.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideJesziwa Chachmej Lublina (the Yeshiva Chakhmei Lublin — ul. Lubartowska 85; the most important rabbinical academy in pre-war Europe (founded and built by the Rebbe Meir Shapiro (1887–1933) — one of the most important rabbinical figures of the 20th century; Shapiro invented the 'Daf Yomi' (Daily Page) system of Talmud study (1923 — the practice of studying one double-sided page (daf) of the Talmud each day, completing the entire Talmud (2,711 daf) in a 7.5-year cycle; the Daf Yomi is still followed today by hundreds of thousands of Jews worldwide (the completion of each cycle (the Siyum HaShas) is celebrated with a gathering of 100,000+ people at Madison Square Garden in New York))); the building (completed 1930; the largest purpose-built Jewish educational institution in the world at the time of completion: 8 storeys, 120 student rooms, a synagogue, a library, and the Rebbe's apartment; the building is now restored and functions as a museum and hotel)). Free exterior; PLN 10 museum.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideUl. Krakowskie Przedmieście (the main commercial boulevard of modern Lublin — connecting the Old Town gate (Cracow Gate — the 15th-century tower at the entrance to the Old Town from the new city) with the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS — one of the four major universities in Lublin (Lublin has 4 universities and 90,000 students in a city of 340,000 — the highest student-to-population ratio of any major Polish city)): the boulevard (the most animated street in Lublin in the evening: the outdoor café terraces, the architecture (a complete record of Lublin urban development from the 15th century to the 1990s: the Krakovska Gate at the Old Town end (15th century), the neoclassical buildings of the 19th century Russian administrative period, the functionalist buildings of the inter-war Polish Republic (1918–1939), and the socialist realist blocks of the communist period (1944–1989))). The Lublin pub scene: the best craft beer bars are on Ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście and the connecting streets (PLN 12–16 per craft beer pint). Free.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBigos (the most important Polish dish for a substantial evening meal: the 'Hunter's Stew' — a slow-cooked dish of sauerkraut (kiszona kapusta — the fermented cabbage that is the most important fermented vegetable in Polish cuisine; the cabbage is lacto-fermented for 2–6 weeks in its own juices with salt; the result is a sour, slightly crunchy fermented vegetable with significantly higher vitamin C than fresh cabbage and a complex, acidic flavour), fresh cabbage, and a variety of meats (the 'bigos' is traditionally made with whatever meats are available: smoked kielbasa, fresh pork, venison, and any leftovers; the Lublin bigos tradition uses the local smoked kielbasa from the Lublin meat-processing tradition)); with wild mushrooms (the dried porcini (borowik szlachetny — Boletus edulis; the most prized forest mushroom in Poland; collected in the Lubelskie forests from August to November) reconstituted in the bigos give a deep, earthy base note to the stew); bigos is at its best reheated (it is traditionally made in large batches and reheated for 3–5 days, each reheating improving the flavour). PLN 30–50 dinner.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePałac w Kozłówce (Kozłówka Palace — 35km north of Lublin; accessible by bus from Lublin Bus Station (PLN 15, 1 hr) or taxi (PLN 120 return)): the palace (the finest surviving country palace in eastern Poland (the baroque palace (late 17th century, extended 18th century) of the Zamoyski family — the most important aristocratic family in Lublin Province)): the most unusual element: the Gallery of Socialist Realism (one of the most remarkable art collections in Poland — a storage gallery of over 1,000 Socialist Realist artworks removed from Polish public buildings after 1989: the Stalin portraits, the Lenin busts, the heroic-worker paintings, the revolutionary posters — all the visual propaganda of the 1944–1989 Polish communist period stored in the former stable building of the Kozłówka Palace; the contrast between the baroque palace aesthetics and the Socialist Realist propaganda makes Kozłówka one of the most intellectually compelling museum experiences in eastern Poland)). Adults PLN 25.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideRoztocze National Park (Roztoczański Park Narodowy — 65km southeast of Lublin (Zamość direction; accessible by bus or organised tour from Lublin); the national park covering the most distinctive landscape in eastern Poland: the Roztocze Highland (a narrow (5–10km wide, 180km long) range of limestone hills rising from the flat eastern Polish lowlands; the highland is covered with primeval mixed forest (beech (Fagus sylvatica), silver fir (Abies alba), and pine (Pinus sylvestris)) and cut by the deep river valleys (the Por and Tanew rivers)): the Konik horses (the Roztocze National Park has the largest herd of free-living Konik horses in Poland (the Konik ('little horse' in Polish) is a small, grey-dun horse breed descended from the Tarpan (the wild European horse (Equus ferus ferus) that went extinct in the wild in 1879); the Konik is the closest living relative to the wild Tarpan; the Roztocze National Park herd (approximately 50 horses) lives in the forest clearings and river meadows)). Free park access; PLN 6 guided trail.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideZamość (UNESCO World Heritage Site 1992; 80km southeast of Lublin by bus (PLN 20, 1.5 hrs) — the best-preserved Renaissance ideal city in Central Europe (the most complete surviving example of a planned Renaissance city in Poland): the city (founded 1580 by Jan Zamoyski (the Polish Grand Chancellor) and designed by the Italian architect Bernardo Morando as a model 'ideal city' (the Renaissance concept of the perfectly planned city, based on the treatises of Alberti, Filarete, and Scamozzi); the design (a regular oval street plan with a central market square (the largest Renaissance market square in Poland, 100m × 140m), uniform four-storey arcaded townhouses (the 'kamienice' — the Zamość townhouse with its distinctive Renaissance arcade on the ground floor)), and a planned integration of military, religious, and commercial functions); the Great Synagogue (the second-largest synagogue in Poland (after the Kraków Rema Synagogue) — a massive Renaissance building (1610–1615) converted to a film archive by the communist authorities after WWII; the Torah ark (Aron Kodesh) and the bimah (Torah reading platform) are preserved)). Free walk.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideReturn to Lublin (bus from Zamość: PLN 20, 1.5 hrs). Final meal: pierogi (the most beloved Polish food: boiled dumplings of thin unleavened dough (made with flour, egg, and water or milk; the dough is rolled thin (2–3mm) and stamped into circles (8–10cm diameter); the circles are filled, folded, and their edges pinched closed before boiling): the classic fillings: (1) pierogi ruskie (the most popular variety: mashed potato + white farmer's cheese (twaróg — the fresh unaged curd cheese of Poland; similar to quark or ricotta but with a slightly more acidic flavour); the filling is lightly seasoned with salt and white pepper; the pierogi are boiled and then pan-fried with butter and fried onion until the skin is golden and crisp; served with sour cream (śmietana)); (2) pierogi z kapustą i grzybami (the Christmas pierogi: sauerkraut + dried wild mushroom filling; the most complex and sophisticated of the pierogi varieties; the mushroom and sauerkraut combination creates an intense, earthy, sour flavour). Best pierogi in Lublin: Pierogi Bar 'Lwowska' (Ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 6 — PLN 20–30 for a full portion). PLN 20–30 pierogi dinner.
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