Text by Michelle Smith

Malopolska is the province in Poland better known for cities like Krakow, historic sites like Auschwitz and holiday destinations like Zakopane. The rush from Warsaw to Krakow and beyond robs most visitors of the enriching experiences of visiting caves that started their development over 360 million years ago, or visiting Poland’s largest open-air museum with one of the best outdoor ethnographic collections. It is also an area for which the European Commission approved in December 2007 a Regional Operational Programme worth a healthy €854 million for the period 2007-2013.

Worth seeing

The regional capital, Kielce, is not much to look at as far as cities go, but it has a distinctive rural charm. It is the perfect point from which to visit the surrounding areas. It is quite a ‘young’ city with more than 40% of its residents younger than 29 years of age. It has an unfortunate high unemployment rate, but with the new investment in the area, that should soon be alleviated. Since Kielce is not one of the major cities in Poland, labour costs are significantly lower (20%-30%) which is a big motivator for companies to branch out and establish factories in this area where they can hire highly qualified workers for less. Tourism is also a growing industry in this area which in turn creates various new job-opportunities.

In Kielce itself are a few places worth visiting: The Bishops’ Palace is high on the list since it stands out like a jewel and is a well-preserved aristocratic town house dating from the 17th century. The period interiors form part of the National Museum in the palace and there is also an excellent collection of Polish paintings. Most of the upper floor comprises of the former bishop’s apartments, furnished appropriately, with its most notable feature being the ceilings adorned with intricately painted larch beams and elaborate friezes running around the tops of the walls.

One of the must-see places, a hop, skip and a jump away from Kielce, is the Paradise Caves or Jaskinia Raj. Even though the tourist route inside the caves is only 180 metres long, it has more than enough to overwhelm you with prehistoric history. There is a thematic exhibition, specimens found during archaeological excavations, and even a Neanderthal family camp with three life size wax figures in the museum. It has been established that Neanderthals occupied these caves as long as 40,000 years ago, using flint instruments, many of which are also on display in the museum. Only 10km from the centre of Kielce, it is easily reached by car and bus, and the guided tour inside the caves takes around 45 minutes.

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