Market Square & Underground Tourist Route
Rynek & Podziemna Trasa Turystyczna

The Rynek is Rzeszów’s market square, which was established in the Middle Ages when the city was granted market town rights by King Casimir the Great in 1354. The square was organized according to a regular square plan with a designated area for the town hall, merchant houses and stalls. The streets emanating from the square were laid out in right-angled axes and created the basis for the city’s further development. The town hall was located centrally, and the square served as a center for trade and administration for centuries.

The buildings around the square were originally wooden houses, but in the 16th and 17th centuries they were gradually replaced by brick buildings. Many of the facades took on a Baroque and Classicist look after reconstructions in the 18th and 19th centuries, and several of the houses were built with cellars where merchants could store goods such as wine, salt and grain. The square was used for markets, where farmers and merchants from all over the region gathered, and it was here that the city’s most important events took place.

Beneath the square is an extensive system of cellars and passages known as the Podziemna Trasa Turystyczna. The first structures were dug in the 15th and 16th centuries and were expanded in the following centuries. The cellars served as warehouses for merchants, where goods could be stored coolly and safely. The system includes corridors, stairs and rooms on several levels, with walls and vaults made of brick and stone. In times of unrest, the structure could also be used as a refuge.

Today, the structure has been restored and is open to the public as a tourist attraction, where visitors can walk along a route about 370 meters long. Along the way, preserved structures, excavations and finds from medieval city life can be seen, and exhibitions are set up that convey the city’s trade and craft traditions. The combination of the historical buildings of the square above and the underground structures below make the area one of the most central and documented cultural environments in Rzeszów.

City Hall
Ratusz

The Ratusz is the town hall of Rzeszów, and it is first mentioned in the city’s documents from 1427. The original town hall building was made of wood and was destroyed in the great fire that raged in 1576. In 1591, Mikołaj Spytek Ligęza built a new town hall in brick, and this brick building was damaged during the so-called Rakoczi raid in 1657.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the town hall was restored and rebuilt several times. Around 1730, under Karol Henryk Wiedemann, the town hall was given classicist features. In the mid-to-late 19th century, the facades and interior were changed, and in the period 1895-1898 a major reconstruction took place, giving the building a neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance style.

Today, the Ratusz is a three-story building with basements and a varying expression. The facades are plastered and richly decorated with ornaments, balconies and decorative gables. The building still houses the city administration and is also used for cultural purposes. A major renovation was completed in 1996 with the aim of restoring the decoration from the late 19th century.

Lubomirskich Palace
Pałac Lubomirskich

Pałac Lubomirskich is a mansion built at the end of the 17th century as a summer residence for the Lubomirski family. In the years 1757-1760, the architect Karol Henryk Wiedemann carried out a reconstruction that gave the building a late Baroque and Rococo style. The mansion became one of the most important noble buildings in the region and served both as a residence and a representative setting for the family’s life.

The building is designed in an H-plan with two side wings and a central building. It has two floors, a mansard roof and symmetrically constructed facades. The decoration includes portrait busts of members of the Lubomirski family, which were executed as classicist sculptures in the Roman style. Windows and portals are framed by profiled frames, and around the mansion was a French garden with axes, avenues and lawns, while the underground contained tunnels and cellars that linked the complex to the city’s fortifications.

The interior was organized according to a Baroque floor plan with a representative central axis. The central building housed large banquet halls on the first floor. They were decorated with stucco and frescoes, while the side wings housed private rooms, dining rooms and offices. The staircase was double-ended, emphasizing the symmetry. In the 18th-century reconstruction, the interior was characterized by Rococo forms with rocailles, parquet floors in geometric patterns and fireplaces with marble surrounds, and the large windows highlighted wall paintings and stucco work.

After reconstructions in the 19th and 20th centuries, many details were changed, but the layout was preserved. A restoration in the 1980s restored parts of the decoration and adapted the palace for new use. Today, the building functions as a music school, with the large halls used for concerts and the smaller rooms for rehearsal rooms and offices, meaning that the palace continues to be used for a combination of representation and function.

Rzeszów Castle
Zamek w Rzeszowie

Zamek w Rzeszowie is the name of the residential castle in Rzeszów. It stands on the site of a fortified residence dating back to the 16th century, which was expanded in the early 17th century by Mikołaj Spytek Ligęza. He transformed the complex into a palazzo in fortezza style with bastions, ring walls and residential wings. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the property passed to the Lubomirski family, who continued the construction and made the complex the center of their power in the region.

A new castle building was built between 1902 and 1906, when the older one was dilapidated. The architecture from this period combines historicist elements with references to earlier fortifications. The building is four-winged and surrounds a courtyard. The corners are marked by bastions, and the complex is surrounded by a moat and walls, which maintains the castle’s character as a fortified complex, even though it now functions as an administrative building.

Inside, the castle was furnished with representative halls, meeting rooms and offices. The main entrance leads to a vestibule and staircase with high ceilings, while the largest rooms on the first floor were used for parties and representation. Today they have been converted into courtrooms, but several stucco and wooden details from the early 20th century have been preserved. The basements were formerly prison cells and storage rooms with barrel-vaulted ceilings and thick walls, and the corridors under the bastions testify to the fortress-like function of the complex.

After World War II, the castle served as a prison and courthouse, and today it is used as the seat of the regional court. Restorations have preserved a number of original details, and the castle stands as a striking symbol of Rzeszów’s history as a residence city.

The Old Town and New Town Synagogues
Synagoga Staromiejska & Nowomiejska

The Synagoga Staromiejska is a synagogue built in the second half of the 17th century. It served as the main religious center for the Jewish community in Rzeszów, which at the time constituted a large part of the city’s population. The building was built in the Renaissance Baroque style with a massive floor plan and thick walls that provided both religious function and fortress-like protection. However, the synagogue was destroyed during wars in the 18th century, but rebuilt and expanded, so that throughout the 19th century it retained its role as the city’s main synagogue.

The Synagoga Nowomiejska was built in the 18th century as a supplementary house of prayer for the growing Jewish community that spread to the new part of the city. This building had simpler proportions, but like the older synagogue, it was built of brick and had Baroque features in the facade. Inside, the space was organized around the bimah in the center and the aron ha-kodesh at the east wall, while windows in high, round-arched openings provided light. Both synagogues functioned until World War II, when they were destroyed during the German occupation.

After the war, the buildings were restored and converted to secular purposes. Today, the Synagoga Staromiejska houses an archive and cultural institution, while the Synagoga Nowomiejska is used for exhibitions. Although the original interior has been lost, the synagogues stand as significant relics from the time when Rzeszów was an important center of Jewish culture in southeastern Poland.

Church of the Holy Cross
Kościół św. Krzyża

Kościół św. Krzyża, meaning Church of the Holy Cross, was built in the early 18th century as a monastery church for the Piarist Order. The construction was carried out under the patronage of the Lubomirski family, who had a great influence on the development of the city and its religious and cultural life. The order ran a school attached to the church, making the complex an important center of education in the region.

Architecturally, the church is an example of Polish Baroque, with a Latin cross plan, a high dome, and richly profiled facades. The main facade has pilasters, niches, and a triangular gable marking the entrance. The building was built of brick, plastered and whitewashed, and the roofs were covered with tiles. The cloister wings, which surround a courtyard, are integrated with the structure of the church and emphasize the function of the whole as a monastery complex.

Inside, the space is characterized by Baroque frescoes and stucco decorations that cover both ceilings and walls. The main altar is designed in Baroque style with columns and richly decorated ornaments, while the side altars have sculptural elements and paintings from the 18th century. The church has preserved a number of works of art related to the work of the Piarist Order, and it today functions as a parish church, while also being an example of the importance of the Baroque for the city’s architecture.

Parish Church of St. Adalbert and St. Stanislaus
Kościół Farny św. Wojciecha i Stanisława

Kościół Farny św. Wojciecha i Stanisława is a parish church in Rzeszów, which has its roots in the Middle Ages, where a wooden church already stood on the site in the 15th century. The current brick church was built in the second half of the 15th century and has undergone several reconstructions. It was expanded in the 17th century in connection with the growth of the city, and later in the 18th and 19th centuries, Baroque and Classicist elements were added.

The building was built as a three-nave basilica with Gothic brick walls and pointed arched windows. In the Baroque era, the church was given a tower and a more richly decorated facade, and later Classicist reconstructions created a more symmetrical whole. The roof was laid in tiles, and the interior of the church is supported by pillars that divide the naves. Outside are the cemetery and the rectory, which together with the church form a historic parish complex.

Inside, the interior bears the mark of the many reconstructions. The main altar is Baroque with richly carved figures and columns, while several side altars date from classicist renovations. The ceilings are vaulted, and in several of the chapels there are epitaphs and tombstones of local noble families. The church still functions as the city’s parish church and is one of the oldest preserved architectural monuments in Rzeszów, where one can read the development from Gothic architecture to later Baroque and classicist additions.

Multimedia Fountain
Multimedialna Fontanna

Multimedialna Fontanna is a multimedia fountain in Rzeszów, which was inaugurated in 2013 as one of the most modern facilities of its kind in Poland. It is located in the city center at Aleja Lubomirskich, close to the Lubomirski Palace and the city castle, and functions as both a technological installation and a recreational gathering point. The facility consists of a basin of about 1,000 m² with almost 400 nozzles that can direct water jets at different heights and directions. In addition, there is an advanced system of LED lights and projectors that enable multimedia shows that combine water, light, images and music.

The fountain is used for regular performances during the summer months, where programs with themes from history, culture and nature are played. The shows can last from 15 to 30 minutes and include, among other things, stories about the history of Rzeszów, Polish national symbols and popular musical performances. The system allows three-dimensional images to be projected directly onto water screens, making the fountain one of the most advanced in Central Europe.