Camino Dolnosląska

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Głogów → Zgorzelec (Old Town Bridge to Görlitz)
• Length: 160 km
• Duration: 6–8 days (6 official stages)
• Waymarking: A scallop shell on a blue background and yellow arrows; starting in Lubań, there is also a Via Regia marker—both lead to the bridge
• Feeder route: The route ends in Głogów Camino Wielkopolska (before that, the Camino Polaco from the Lithuanian border)
• Connection: across the Old Town Bridge to Görlitz — Via Regia Germany, from Bautzen The Saxon Way of St. James
• Character: Poland's First Way of St. James — A Week Amid Copper Mines, Pine Forests, and a Border Bridge, with Lots of Asphalt

Overview

The Camino Dolnosląska is the route with which Poland's Way of St. James history began all over again: on July 24, 2005 it opened as the country's first permanently waymarked Way of St. James — everything that today adds up to almost 6,000 kilometres of Polish Camino network came afterwards. Over 160 kilometres it leads from the Piast island in Głogów to Poland's only St. James sanctuary in Jakubów, then through Europe's largest copper district — the KGHM St. James shaft salutes you with its headframe — and through the endless pines of the Bory Dolnośląskie, before it ends in Zgorzelec on a bridge with Germany on the other side.

It’s the complete Camino experience in a vacation format: six stages, a clear starting point, a symbolic destination—and realistic conditions. Instead of hostels, you’ll stay at the parish guesthouse in Jakubów, plus a bed-and-breakfast and an agritourism farm—all with a phone and advance booking required. Three of the six days involve eight hours of walking, and from Nowogrodziec onward, there’s a 17-kilometer stretch of paved road. But in the end, you’ll find yourself at a junction rather than a dead end: once you cross the Nysa River, the Via Regia Germany and from Bautzen onward, the The Saxon Way of St. James — About 2,800 kilometers to go to Santiago, and the scallop shell on the bridge is already pointing in the right direction.

Other Names

In Polish, the trail is called Dolnośląska Droga św. Jakuba — The Lower Silesian Way of St. James —, known to the operator simply as “Droga Dolnośląska.” In German texts, however, you’ll often come across the route’s old place names: Glogau, Jakobskirch, Bunzlau, Lauban, Görlitz. There are two common misunderstandings you should avoid. First, the Via Regia Poland Not this route—it runs from the Ukrainian border through Kraków and Wrocław and doesn’t reach Lubań until later; the final 30 kilometers to Zgorzelec are then shared by both routes, with markings for both. And second: When travelogues rave about “around 1,000 kilometers of the Camino Polaco,” they’re referring to the entire route from the Lithuanian to the German border— Camino Polaco, Camino Wielkopolska and this route runs continuously. The Dolnosląska itself is 160 kilometers long.

Who It's Ideal For — and Who It's Not So Ideal For

This route is for you if you want to pack a genuine Camino de Santiago experience into a week-long vacation without just walking any old path: 160 kilometers, six stages, starting at a collegiate church on a Piast island, ending on a bridge between two countries. It’s also ideal for anyone who loves history in layers—the Silesian Piasts, the Reformation, Prussia, 1945, copper mining, and the opening of the EU border all unfold one after another along these 160 kilometers. And for those who love “firsts,” of course: This section marked the beginning of the entire Polish Camino network on July 24, 2005.

To be honest, though, this isn’t for you if you’re expecting soft forest trails. The operator warns: starting from Nowogrodziec, there’s a 17-kilometer stretch of asphalt—“suitable for cyclists, challenging for pedestrians”—and the final leg isn’t much better. The days are long (29, 18, 22, 26, 33, and 29 kilometers; three days of at least eight hours each), and the lodging options consist of the free parish guesthouse in Jakubów and, otherwise, guesthouses that require advance booking. And it really is lonely: only a few hundred people a year take this route. You’ll often be the only one.

Route & Landscape

You'll start in Głogów at the Collegiate Church on the Ostrów Tumski, the island of the ancient Piast Castle—where, in 1109, the people of Glogau defended their city against Henry V, who tied their own children to the siege engines—you cross the Bridge of Tolerance and, after a few kilometers, find yourself in the heart of the city: Jakubów, Poland’s only St. James sanctuary since 2007, with the St. James Spring next to the church. Then the scene takes on an industrial grandeur: The path crosses the Legnicko-Głogowskie Copper District, past the winding tower of the Jakobus Shaft and with a view of Żelazny Most, Europe's largest mining tailings pond—a 14-kilometer-long dam, visible from space. And with Grodowiec The second pilgrimage site of the first day is right along the route.

From Chocianów it grows quiet: The Bory Dolnośląskie, Poland’s largest contiguous forest, covering over 165,000 hectares, takes up two full stages—almost entirely pine, interspersed with villages whose cemeteries bear Ukrainian inscriptions commemorating the forcibly resettled Lemkos. Beyond that Bolesławiec, the pottery town on the Bóbr River, then the longest leg of the journey along the old border between Silesia and Lusatia to Lubań, where the St. James Hospital was founded in 1323. You’ll share the final leg of the route with the Via Regia: past the over 1,300-year-old yew tree in Henryków Lubański—the oldest tree in Poland—all the way to the Old Town Bridge across the Lusatian Neisse. On the other side: Görlitz.

Stages, Terrain & Difficulty

The official classifications are six stages, and the operator promises to cover the nearly 160 kilometers “in a week.” As always, the average of 26 kilometers is misleading: The range is from 18 to 33 kilometers, and for three of the six days, the operator estimates at least eight hours of walking time. Technically, nothing is particularly challenging—flat terrain, forest trails, no exposed sections. What’s challenging is the asphalt—especially the 17-kilometer stretch behind Nowogrodziec—and the question of where you’ll sleep at night. If you split the long fifth stage in Nowogrodziec and take half a day in Bolesławiec, you’ll need eight days; whoever implements the operator classification, six.

1. Głogów → Grodowiec — 29 km (at least 8 hours) — Start at the Collegiate Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on Ostrów Tumski, cross the Bridge of Tolerance to the left bank of the Oder; pass through Kurowice (Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross) and Łagoszów Mały to Jakubów, home to the St. James Sanctuary and St. James’ Spring; continuing through Maniów, Jerzmanowa, Golowice, and Żuków to the Marian Shrine in Grodowiec (formerly Wysoka Cerekiew). Visible from afar along the way: the shaft tower of Szyb św. Jakuba.
2. Grodowiec → Nowa Wieś Lubińska — 18 km (approx. 4.5 hours) — Shortest stage. Via Komorniki (St. Mary Magdalene Church) and Trzebcz to Polkowice (Town Hall, St. Michael’s Church, copper mining since 1957), then via Sobin along forest trails to Nowa Wieś Lubińska. View of the Żelazny Most tailings pond. Extension to Chocianów possible: 31 km total.
3. Nowa Wieś Lubińska → Modła — 22 km (at least 5 hours) — Across the Bory Dolnośląskie. Via Pogorzeliska (Protestant Hyacinth Church with a palm-column ceiling) to Chocianów (St. Joseph’s Church, English-style landscape park, 15 ha), continuing via Nowa Kuźnia to Modła (Rosary Branch Church). Lemko settlement area, Ukrainian gravestone inscriptions. According to the operator, accommodations are available in Gromadka and Osła.
4. Modła → Bolesławiec — 26 km (at least 7 hours) — Continue through the pine forests, past a former military airfield, across the A4, then along dirt roads through the Silesian Lowlands via Osła (St. Peter and Paul), Szczytnica, Tomaszów Bolesławiecki (St. Hedwig’s Church), and Kruszyn to Bolesławiec (Basilica of the Assumption, town hall from 1525, city of ceramics).
5. Bolesławiec → Lubań — 33 km (at least 8 hours) — Longest stage. Along the historic border between Silesia and Lusatia via Mierzwin, Dzięcioły, and Nowogrodziec (St. Peter and Paul Church, City Hall), as well as Nawojów Śląski to Lubań (Bracka Tower, city walls, Holy Trinity Church). Note: From Nowogrodziec, 17 kilometers on local paved roads—according to the operator, suitable for cyclists, but strenuous for pedestrians.
6. Lubań → Zgorzelec — 29 km (at least 8 hours; camino-europe.eu lists 32.45 km) — Mostly paved, follows the Via Regia (both routes are marked). Via Pisarzowice, Henryków Lubański (the “Henryk” yew tree, Poland’s oldest tree), Sławnikowice (castle complex), Gronów (manor house with an oak-lined avenue), Pokrzywnik, and Łagów to Zgorzelec: Dom Kołodzieja, the house of Jakob Böhme, the destination at the Old Town Bridge over the Lusatian Neisse, where you can get the last Polish stamp at the tourist office. Caution: Be careful at the expressway intersection near Lubań and on the Zgorzelec bypass.

Stage 2 can officially be extended to Chocianów (31 km instead of 18 km). And the operator envisions the route as part of a chain: northward, the Droga Wielkopolska, past Görlitz and on to Droga Żytawska (Zittauer Weg) Toward Prague.

Donated in 1323, certified in 1508, returned first in 2005

The evidence for this route is not pious guesswork but administrative record. In 1323 the innkeeper Ulrich Aumann endowed the St. James hospital in Lubań — handed down in dry chancery prose: „der Ulrich Aumannin zu Luban stiftung des Jacobshospitals daselbst. D. 1323“; as late as 1539 the Bishop of Breslau remembered it in his will. In Jakubów, documented since 14 January 1376, people were already walking to the St. James spring in the 12th century, and on 25 July 1735 twenty priests were not enough to hear the confessions of everyone who had come. The most honest figure comes from the Görlitz registers of 1358 to 1545: 140 recorded pilgrimages — of those, four went to Santiago, the rest overwhelmingly to Aachen. One of those four has a name: in 1508 the Breslau council issued Jan Wenzel of Lubań a letter of recommendation for the road to Compostela — papers for a man from your fifth stage town.

Then the way fell silent for four centuries: in 1571 the Protestants took over St. James' Church, in the Thirty Years' War Swedish troops burned its charters, in 1741 Prussia arrived, in 1945 came the complete exchange of population — until 1950 Jakubów was officially called “Dębina”, and on 7 May 1945 German soldiers blew up the Old Town Bridge to Görlitz. That it was reopened on October 20, 2004, nine months before the way itself, belongs to the punchline: the destination of this Camino did not exist for 59 years.

The return began with a house call. In 1999 Father Stanisław Czerwiński took over the parish of Jakubów — of whose St. James past he knew nothing, until in 2004 Henryk Karaś stood at his door, a retired mining engineer from the copper district, and showed him the Ways of St. James across Europe. The brotherhood was founded that same year, the decision was taken on 18 October, and on July 24, 2005 the way was opened simultaneously in Jakubów and Zgorzelec; in 2007 the bishop raised the church to Poland's first St. James sanctuary. A miner, a priest, a spring — and ever since, a waymarked route runs again from the Oder to the Neisse, where miners and pilgrims in Lower Silesia had always shared the same patron saint anyway.

Highlights Along the Way

• Głogów, Ostrów Tumski — The starting point is on the island of Piastenburg: the first stone church was built in the 11th century; it was destroyed during Barbarossa’s campaign in 1157 and first mentioned in historical records as a brick basilica in 1218. In 1945, the roofs and vaults collapsed; reconstruction has been underway since 1995. And in 1109, the city wrote the darkest chapter in early Polish history: it withstood the siege even as its children were hung from the emperor’s siege engines.
• The Shrine of St. James in Jakubów — Poland’s first and only St. James sanctuary (established on June 20, 2007). Local tradition dates back to 991, with documented evidence beginning on January 14, 1376; inside, 14th-century frescoes, a ceiling painting from 1720, relics of St. James from Rome—and a bell from 1506 bearing the inscription “O Rex gloriae, veni cum pace”, one of the oldest in Poland.
• St. James' Spring — A brick fountain next to the church, with a statue of St. James in pilgrim’s garb and a hat above it. Pilgrims have been coming here since the 12th century, from Bohemia, France, Moravia, and Silesia; on St. James’s Day in 1735, twenty priests were not enough to hear all the confessions.
• Szyb św. Jakuba and Żelazny Most — On Stage 1, you’ll see the headframe of the Szyb św. Jakuba, a 1,027-meter-deep copper mine shaft that hoists over 5,000 metric tons of ore daily; on Stage 2, the view opens up to Żelazny Most: 1,580 hectares, 14 kilometers of dams, Europe’s largest mining tailings pond, visible from space. It all began on March 23, 1957, with a borehole named Sieroszowice IG 1.
• Grodowiec — the Marian shrine “Jutrzenka Nadziei” at the end of the first leg, less than 30 kilometers from Jakubów. Few routes in Poland take you to two pilgrimage sites in a single day.
• Bory Dolnośląskie and Bolesławiec — two stages through Poland’s largest forest (over 165,000 hectares of pine, with wolves), then the city of ceramics: Granted city rights in 1251, town hall dating from 1525, minor basilica since 2012 — and the obelisk honoring Field Marshal Kutuzov, who died here in 1813 while pursuing Napoleon.
• Lubań and the “Henryk” Yew Tree — In 1323, innkeeper Ulrich Aumann founded the St. James Hospital and its chapel here. On the final leg of the route, in Henryków Lubański, stands the “Henryk” yew tree: over 1,300 years old, bearing the scars of Cossack saber cuts from the 19th century—it is the oldest tree in Poland.
• Zgorzelec and the Old Town Bridge — The house at Daszyńskiego 12 was once home to the shoemaker-mystic Jakob Böhme (1575–1624; now a museum, free admission). The bridge itself: first mentioned in 1298, built of stone in 1547, blown up on May 7, 1945, and reopened on October 20, 2004. The last Polish postmark is available at the tourist office at the bridgehead.

How Pilgrims Find Their Way onto This Path

The natural feeder is the Camino Wielkopolska: It starts in Mogilno, passes through Gniezno, Poznań, and Leszno, and ends right in Głogów—you just change the name of the route. And before that lies the Camino Polaco From the Lithuanian border: Taken together, these three routes total about 1,000 kilometers, which travelogues sometimes refer to collectively as the “Camino Polaco.”

Most people travel there directly: Głogów has train connections to Wrocław (1 hour 11 minutes to 2 hours), Zielona Góra, and Poznań. Along the way, there are three other train stations—Bolesławiec, Lubań, and Zgorzelec—so if you only have a long weekend, you can cover the final legs on foot via the Eibe and the border bridge. And if you’re coming from Germany, you can do it the elegant way—the other way around: take the train to Görlitz, walk across the Old Town Bridge, then take the train to Głogów to start your hike—that way, you’ll have already seen your destination before you even set out.

Continue the pilgrimage?

This path doesn't end in Santiago; it ends on a bridge—and beyond it lies Germany. From the Altstadtbrücke, it's less than three hundred meters to Görlitz's Old Town, where the Via Regia Germany takes over—the Ecumenical Pilgrimage Route across Saxony and Thuringia. Those who prefer to head south can follow it as far as Bautzen — that's where the The Saxon Way of St. James. Both are clearly marked all the way from Görlitz; the only thing left to arrange is dinner.

And there's another route that arrives here: The Via Regia Poland starts at the Ukrainian border, passes through Kraków and Wrocław, and joins this route at Lubań—the final leg is part of both. So in Zgorzelec, you're at a junction, not an endpoint: Northeast Camino Wielkopolska and Camino Polaco, Southeast Via Regia Poland, West Via Regia Germany, Southwest The Saxon Way of St. James. It's still about 2,800 kilometers to Santiago—the scallop shell on the bridge is already pointing in the right direction.

Preparation & Practical Information

The best times are May through September. Lower Silesia is one of the mildest regions in Poland—with one caveat: on the paved sections of Stages 5 and 6, it gets hot in midsummer, and there’s hardly any shade; the pine forests of the Bory Dolnośląskie, on the other hand, are pleasant even in the heat. July 25, St. James’ Day, is the big event in Jakubów—those planning to walk around this date should book their accommodations there well in advance.

The trail is marked with the Polish standard: Shell on a blue background plus yellow arrows, every 200 to 250 meters, pointing exclusively toward Santiago. Starting in Lubań, the signs for the Via Regia parallel — don't let it confuse you; both lead to the same bridge. Download the GPS track (camino.net.pl has maps and tracks for each stage) and expect paved roads: 17 kilometers straight from Nowogrodziec, plus two spots to watch out for at the intersections near Lubań and Zgorzelec.

As on all routes along the Way of St. James, you'll need a Pilgrim's Pass (Credencial) For the stamps—at the parishes in Jakubów and Grodowiec, at town halls, and finally at the tourist office by the bridge. The Pilgrim’s Passport is issued by the association “Przyjaciele Dróg św. Jakuba w Polsce”; you’ll receive the certificate after walking at least 100 kilometers. Order it online at least ten days before departure so it arrives in time for the start of your journey—it also serves as the basis for the Compostela in Santiago. Plan your daily stages in advance, since you’ll be switching between parish lodging, guesthouses, and agritourism accommodations; the easiest way to do this is directly in the Camino Ninja app, where you can put together your stages and plan suitable accommodations at the same time.

What the journey will cost you

Expect 130 to 200 zloty per day, or about 30 to 46 euros—not because of Spanish hostel prices, but because Poland is generally inexpensive. The pilgrim lodging at the Jakubów parish is free; otherwise, guesthouses or agritourism accommodations cost 100 to 200 złoty per room, depending on the season, and even more in Bolesławiec and Zgorzelec. Lunch costs about 40 złoty, a beer 15, and water less than 2. Since the entire route takes only six to eight days, the total cost is manageable: about 800 to 1,400 złoty for the route (190 to 325 euros) plus travel to and from the starting point, plus the pilgrim’s passport for a few złoty and the certificate for 19. Those on a tight budget can get by on 90 to 130 złoty a day, while those who like to indulge might spend 250 to 300 — all prices as of August 2026, calculated at 4.31 złoty per euro.

Getting There

Głogów It’s located along the Wrocław–Zielona Góra rail line, with trains running throughout the day; from Wrocław Główny, the trip takes between 1 hour and 11 minutes and 2 hours. From German-speaking countries, you can fly to Wrocław or Poznań—or take the more scenic route: take the train to Görlitz, walk across the Old Town Bridge, and then take the train from Zgorzelec to Głogów.

The route ends at two stations: Zgorzelec on the Polish side, with trains heading toward Węgliniec and Wrocław, and Görlitz on the opposite side, with Trilex trains to Bautzen and Dresden. You’ll have to walk the stretch in between—there haven’t been any border checks on the bridge since 2007. And for those who don’t want to go all the way: Bolesławiec and Lubań are both located along the railroad line to Görlitz.

• Getting to Głogów: Train from Wrocław Główny (1:11–2:00 h, departures starting at 4:31 a.m.), also direct from Zielona Góra and Poznań. Airports: Wrocław-Strachowice (~120 km), Poznań-Ławica (~130 km). From Germany: Take the train to Görlitz, cross the bridge, and continue by train.
• Return trip from Zgorzelec/Görlitz: Zgorzelec Station toward Węgliniec/Wrocław; Görlitz Station via Trilex to Bautzen and Dresden, with connections to Berlin, Leipzig, and Prague. Both stations are just a few minutes apart.
• Intermediate entry: Bolesławiec cuts the distance in half (railroad station since 1845, still ~62 km to Zgorzelec); Lubań is the quick entry point for the final leg (29 km, featuring the yew tree of Henryków Lubański); you can reach Polkowice by bus if you only want to start from the copper mining district.