We encourage you to visit the complex of the parish church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Czchów. The building was erected in 1346 in the Gothic style. It is the oldest and best-preserved monument of religious architecture of the Brzesko region.
There is a Romanesque church in Tropie nad Dunajcem, one of the oldest in this part of Poland. According to tradition, it was built in the place where the hermitage of St Andrew Zorard, a Benedictine monk, was living at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. Only the walls of the chancel survived from the original building. Another Romanesque church can be found in Dziekanowice. According to historians, it could have been built at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries.
In Iwkowa there is a cemetery church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary dated on the second half of the 15th century. We also recommend a visit to the parish church of St Nicholas the Bishop in Tymowa, founded in the 14th century. Both objects lie on the Wooden Architecture Route.
Other nearby temples that are included on the Route are: auxiliary church of St John the Baptist in Rzepiennik Biskupi from the early 16th century, the parish church of St Bartholomew in Jastrzębia, the parish church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Przydonica, the parish church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Podole-Górowa, the church of St Peter and Paul the Apostles in Rożnów, the church of All Saints in Bobowa.
The interiors of the following temples are equally interesting: the church of St Margaret in Żurowa, the church of St Michael the Archangel in Jodłówka Tuchowska, the church of St Justina in Paleśnica, the church of St Stanislaus in Wilczyska, the church of St Catherine in Ryglice, which was built on the site of a 17th-century wooden temple or, finally, the monastery complex of the Franciscans in Zakliczyn.
Separate attention should also be paid to the monastery complex of the Franciscans in Wieliczka with a picture of Our Lady of Grace, the Duchess Wieliczka, auxiliary church of St Adalbert in Szymbark, which according to tradition stands in the place where St Adalbert celebrated a mass on his way from Hungary to Poland. Be sure no to miss the UNESCO World Heritage Site: the church of St Michael the Archangel in Binarowa and the church of St Leonard in Lipnica Murowana.
We have two important churches in Nowy Wiśnicz. The first is one is a complex of the parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where in the presbytery you can admire a painting “Resurrection of Lazarus” by Jan Matejko. In turn, the Carmelite monastery complex in Nowy Wiśnicz is located in... the prison. You can enter there only once a year, during the Weekend with Monuments of the Bochnia Poviat, organized every year on the first Saturday and Sunday of September.
When visiting sacred buildings in the Małopolska region you cannot miss the collegiate basilica of St Nicholas in Bochnia. This largest and oldest church in the town was built in the 15th century. Next to the church there is a free-standing wooden belfry of the pillar structure from the early 17th century, which was entered into the Wooden Architecture Route.
There are many sacred testimonies of Jewish culture in the area as well. In Bobowa, it is worth seeing the synagogue and the Jewish cemetery – both places associated with the Hasidic centre founded at the end of the 19th century by Rabbi Szlomo Halberstam. In the synagogue, services are held during Hasidim pilgrimages to the tombs of Bobowa tzadikim.
Małopolska region was the place of many fights during World War I. The most important battle and the breaking of the eastern front took place near Gorlice, where Russian troops were defeated by the German and Austro-Hungarian troops and forced to retreat. Many soldiers were killed in the fighting on the front, hence in the area there are many cemeteries where they were buried. One of them is the object number 123 Łużna on the Pustki hill, located on the World War I Eastern Front Trail. It is the largest of all 400 necropolises of the First World War in Western Galicia. Nearly 1,201 soldiers are buried here.