The Holy Cross

Łysa Góra — known in German as the Blessenberg or Heiligkreuzberg — rises to almost 594 m as the highest point of the Holy Cross Mountains in southeastern Poland and ranks among the country's oldest sacred sites. Long before Christianity arrived, the forested summit served as a pagan ritual site; archaeological finds confirm offerings and cult practices that embedded the mountain deeply in Slavic legend. In the early 11th century Benedictine monks established a monastery here, which later came to house relics of the Holy Cross, transforming the peak into one of Poland's most important pilgrimage destinations. The monastery remains inhabited today, and a marked hiking trail climbs through ancient beech forest to the summit, where broad views open across the Świętokrzyskie landscape.