5 awesomely quirky tourist attractions in Poland

And you thought the whole Eastern bloc was nothing but boring grey concrete apartment blocks as far as the eye can see. Ha!

So if you haven’t figured out by now, Poland is pretty great, with spectacular vodka as far as the eye can see, and some other fun stuff as well. But it’s not just fancy cathedrals and old-timey charming cobblestones and what have you. That’s great too, but sometimes you just want to see something out of the ordinary, and Poland has a number of quirky tourist attractions that’ll catch your attention and demand a “meanwhile, in Poland” sort of caption.

Wanna see? Let’s begin.

Top 5 offbeat tourist attractions in Poland

This is gonna be fun!

1) The world’s biggest Jesus

It’s called the Christ the King statue, and yup, it’s the tallest statue of Jesus in the world, at 33 m (108 ft) tall. Take that, Rio.

It’s in western Poland, in a town called Świebodzin, and was built on a budget of $1.5 million, and although it might sound a bit like this is all in the service of a “we have a bigger statue than you” sort of contest, the height of 33 meters is also supposed to symbolize Christ’s 33 years. Good thing Poland is smart enough to be metric, because if they used Imperial units, this thing would be puny.

It weighs in at 440 tons, or almost 400,000 kg, and took about 4 years to build. It’s quite an impressive site up on the mound without any skyscrapers in the background to steal his thunder.

2) Crooked forest

So this one kinda reminds me of Antoni Gaudí, who said there are no straight lines to be found anywhere in nature. But I think even he’d get a kick out of seeing this place.

The weirdest part? They still don’t know how this happened.

Competing theories include tank trampling over them (the trees were saplings during World War II), or they could have been shaped this way deliberately to be used in wooden ship hulls.

Or…someone was just crazy. It wouldn’t be that weird.

3) Crooked house

More crookedness! Because Poland gets bored when things are boring. I mean, we all do, but Poland decided to do something about it. Or…this architect did. Poland can’t take all the credit.

It’s actually part of a shopping center, and was finished in 2004, in the city of Sopot, in northern Poland.

Tenants include restaurants, clothing stores, coffee shops, and other businesses. It’s bigger on the inside than it looks from the street, since it goes back pretty deep. Check out the virtual tour and rent out a space!

4) Upside down house

This one has made the rounds on the internetz for quite some time, because apparently the entire planet is absolutely fascinated by the simple notion of something being placed upside down and that’s all.

Built by Daniel Czapiewski, and finished in 2007, the house was intended to be an artistic project representing the backwardness of the communist ruling party, and their detachment from everyday life.

Construction had to stop every few hours because the builders got disoriented and had to take a break. Which, now that it’s a neat Polish tourist attraction, is something you can experience as well. You can find it in Szymbark, up in northern Poland, near Gdansk.

5) Dachsund festival in Krakow

In the March of the Dachshunds, Polish citizens come from all over to show off their adorable little dachshunds on the main square of Krakow, where they can be found dressed up in costumes, like superhero outfits, tuxedos, and all kinds of other fun stuff.

Why? Because why not?

The festival is actually huge. As in, the entire town square gets so completely filled with people that you might only realize it’s a gigantic dachshund party when you step on one.

It’s every bit as confusing and amazing as you are currently imagining.

More quirky Poland tourist attractions?

These are some of the more unusual attractions Poland has to offer, but if I missed any, let me know, and I’ll add it here!