Churches and monasteries
Pauline monastery with a Baroque altar, a figure of the Virgin Mary and a legend of a miraculous spring
Museums
a multimedia story of Żarki’s crafts in a renovated electric mill from the early 1930s
Cemeteries and monuments
a kirkut founded in 1821, with more than 700 gravestones, the oldest from 1835
Historic sites
ruins of a 14th-century stone watchtower on a limestone rock, with a wall for climbers
Historic sites
surviving synagogue from around 1870, now housing the municipal cultural centre
Churches and monasteries
a brick church from 1518-1522, rebuilt after a fire, with late Baroque altars
Churches and monasteries
ruins of a Baroque limestone church on a hill with a view of the Warta valley
Churches and monasteries
a shingle-roofed hospital church from the late 17th century with three 18th-century altars
Things to do in Żarki: the sanctuary in Leśniów, the watchtower ruins in Przewodziszowice, a synagogue, a crafts museum and churches on the Jura.
Żarki lies on the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, in the Myszków county. The town has a compact set of monuments: a Pauline monastery in Leśniów, medieval ruins on a rock, traces of a former Jewish community and churches from different centuries. Most sites suit a calm, independent trip.
The most important is the Pauline monastery in Leśniów at Leśniowska 99, with a church in which the figure of Our Lady of Leśniów is venerated. The whole complex is a listed monument, and the church dates from the sixteenth century. The second goal is the Przewodziszowice Watchtower, the ruins of a medieval watchtower on a limestone outcrop, with climbing routes, in the former village of Przewodziszowice, now part of Żarki. Nature reserves of the northern Jura are covered in the article on rocks, beech woods and yews.
Other churches are gathered on the page about churches and monasteries in Żarki.
The synagogue at Moniuszki 2, by the Leśniówka river, was built around 1870 in the Moorish-Romanesque Revival style. It is the only one of the town's three free-standing synagogues to survive, and today it houses the Municipal and Communal Cultural Centre. On Polna Street lies the New Jewish Cemetery, founded in 1821, the only one of the town's three cemeteries that has survived. It covers 1.5 hectares and holds more than seven hundred gravestones. Entry is free; keep quiet there.
The Museum of Old Crafts is housed in the Old Mill, a former electric mill. It presents crafts present in the town for centuries, including milling, baking, shoemaking, cooperage and wheelwrighting, and it combines original machines with multimedia presentations. The museum opened in 2015.
Leśniów in the morning, the museum in the mill at noon, then the synagogue, the cemetery and the ruins on the hill or the watchtower in the afternoon.
The building is now a cultural centre, so it is mostly viewed from the outside.
Visit the Museum of Old Crafts in the former mill or one of the churches.
See the page architecture in Żarki and the set of places for a solo trip.
