20 Fantastic Things to Do in Bydgoszcz, Poland

Bydgoszcz, the city in northern Poland, is one of the underrated and less-known cities that isn’t on the list of many. While this 8th largest city doesn’t have significant landmarks, there are plenty of things to do in Bydgoszcz, featuring gorgeous architecture, a wide array of cafes, and quirky museums.

We visited Bydgoszcz as an impromptu day trip from Poznan, but after wandering its streets, the city is also great for a weekend getaway or spending 2 to 3 days here. 

This detailed Bydgoszcz itinerary is perfect as a day trip starting from the train station to explore city’s main attractions. However, in the end, I also provide a few other places to visit nearby as day trips from Bydgoszcz. 

Is Bydgoszcz worth visiting? 

In short, I absolutely recommend you visit Bydgoszcz. After all, if you started reading this post, you are already interested, aren’t you? But to convince you here are a few reasons why is Bydgoszcz worth visiting. 

With its postcard-perfect skyline, a charming tiny island, a waterfront offering boat rides (water trams), lovely footbridges, old granaries, and Art-Nouveau architecture, Bydgoszcz is, honestly, one of the essential places to visit in Poland. 

Bydgoszcz, pronounced as Bid-gosh-ch, is often called ‘Little Venice’ or ‘Little Berlin.’ The city, dating back to the 13th century, got its monikers because of the quaint architecture and idyllic riverside location. 

Due to its many canals of Brda River connecting to the Vistula River, Bydgoszcz was an important stop on many trade routes that contributed to its growth under Prussian rule from the late 18th to early 20th century. With the 25km long Bydgoszcz Canal built in 1775, the city connected East to Western Europe.  

Therefore, many Bydgosczcz attractions are centered around the Brda River’s bend, including the city’s oldest part. You can enjoy a ride on a water tram, rent a boat, or admire the city views from the riverside. 

Compared to other major cities in Poland, the Prussian-Germanic impact is far more visible here, leading to the ‘Little Berlin’ tag. However, Bydgoszcz is far from a big raging city with the expected fast-paced lifestyle in Berlin, Krakow, or Warsaw. Instead, it is tranquil and a perfect place to escape the busy cities. 

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Best time to visit Bydgoszcz

Bydgoszcz is a year-round destination with plenty of things to see and do. For the warmest weather, the best time to visit Bydgoszcz is from May to September, when temperatures reach a pleasant 20C; however, May, June, and July can be rainy, too.

If you visit Poland in winter, expect cold weather. However, there are still plenty of things to do in Bydgoszcz in winter, including a visit to the Christmas Market, where Christmas lights and decorations illuminate the city.  

Autumn is another good time to visit Bydgoszcz, with warm temperatures before it gets cold. Our trip here was at the end of October. While the sky was grey and gloomy, walking around to enjoy the sights was still pleasant. 

How to get to Bydgoszcz

Getting to Bydgoszcz from cities in Poland or the rest of Europe is relatively easy. The Bydgoszcz Airport (Ignacy Jan Paderewski Airport), located 3.5km from the city center, serves both international and domestic flights.

If you prefer trains, Bydgoszcz is well-connected to other Polish cities and nearby countries such as Germany or Czechia. If you are already in Poland, you can easily get to Bydgoszcz from Poznan, Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, and Krakow, to name a few. These cities are just a few hours’ train ride from Bydgoszcz. 

If you decide to visit Bydgoszcz on a day trip, it is closer to Torun, Poznan, Gdansk, and the small town of Gniezno. On average, it takes 1:30 hours to get to Bydgoszcz from Poznan and Gdansk, depending on the time of departure and train type. Bydgoszcz is also around 40 minutes to an hour away from Torun and Gniezno. 

As I mentioned earlier, we traveled from Poznan to Bydgoszcz as an impromptu, last-minute day trip via quite comfortable Polish trains. You can find tickets to Bydgoszcz on the Pkp Intercity website. 

Where to stay in Bydgoszcz 

If you choose to have Bydgoszcz city break and stay here for a few days, the city has plenty of accommodation options. Whether you are looking for budget-friendly, boutique, or luxury hotels in Bydgoszcz, the city has it all, and here are my recommendations. 

Budget-friendly: Hotel Silver – offers modern accommodations with free Wi-Fi, a casual setting, a breakfast buffet, and private bathrooms.

Mid-range: Przystan Bydgoszcz – a 3-star hotel offers laid-back accommodations in an industrial-chic, waterfront building, where you can enjoy a restaurant, a gym, and a sauna.   

Boutique: Pod Orlem Hotel – a historic hotel with unique architecture influenced by Baroque and Renaissance styles, where some rooms have private balconies. The hotel is very close to the Old Town.

Rezydencja Sowa Bydgoszcz – offers warmly decorated quarters in a polished setting. Guests can enjoy breakfast, parking, and a sauna. 

Luxurious: Hotel Bohema – a 5-star hotel offers a refined stay with a spa, indoor pool, and a Czarny Diament restaurant serving meals in complete darkness (open on selected dates only and requires reservations). 

Słoneczny młyn – upscale, riverside lodging in a restored 19th-century mill with a gym and a spa on the banks of the Brda River, close to the Old Town.

→ Can’t find what you are looking for? Here are more Bydgoszcz hotels to choose from. 

20 Fantastic things to do in Bydgoszcz

Bydgoszcz sightseeing offers many monuments, landmarks, museums, and charming cobblestone streets. The impressive architecture here will keep you in awe at every turn. The mixture of Art-Nouveau buildings scattered in the city and the German fachwerk (timber framed) buildings makes Bydgoszcz unique and interesting! 

Admire the former railway administrative building 

If you visit Bydgoszcz on a day trip from Poznan and use the train to get there in the morning, walk through Dworcowa Street, which connects Bydgoszcz train station to the city center. 

The street is full of stunning buildings on its sides, including Gmach Dyrekcji Kolei, or the former headquarters Directorate of the Prussian Eastern Railway, constructed in 1889 reflecting Dutch Mannerism architecture, with a tower and decorative roofs. 

The Prussian Eastern Railway was approximately 740 kilometers long, connecting the capital, Berlin, with the cities of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). It had a main parallel route to the south through Bromberg (now Bydgoszcz, Poland) and Thorn (now Toruń, Poland) to Insterburg (now Chernyakhovsk, Russia). 

Grab a morning cup of coffee

Following Dworcowa Street, find your way to Pomorska 15 to find a tranquil and hidden coffee shop, Kawiarnia Pomorska 15 (the exact location is on the map provided above). 

This lovely cafe is accessed through a courtyard and then a hallway. The door was open when we visited, but there’s an intercom for you to ring a bell if it is not. 

With a very unconventional and cozy atmosphere adorned with a mixture of vintage and modern, Kawiarnia Pomorska 15 is an excellent place to grab coffee to jump-start your day. 

The menu has many delicious coffees, pastries, bagels, and cakes. They also have soy, pea, and oat milk if that’s what you prefer in your latte or cappuccino. 

Peek inside a mirror gate

Once done with your coffee, head to 5 Mazowiecka Street to see the entrance of the courtyard walls covered in tiny mirror mosaic. Joanna Rajkowska, the artist, used 700 kg of mirrors to create this mirror gate at one of the tenement houses. 

Walk through Cieszkowskiego Street

One of the free things to do in Bydgoszcz is to admire gorgeous buildings lining August Cieszkowskiego Street. 

Considered one of the most attractive streets in the city, the buildings here date back to 1896-1904, featuring various architectural styles like eclecticism, neo-baroque, and neo-gothic. 

Due to these stunning buildings, Bydgoszcz even claimed its own style of Art Nouveau, known locally as ‘Bydgoska Secesja.’ 

This 250m long street with ornate, pastel-colored townhouses is mainly designed by renowned architects such as Józef Święcicki, Fritz Weidner, and Karl Bergner.

Play musical instruments at Music District

Music District, covering Staszica, Gdańska, Mickiewicza, and Kołłątaja streets, boasts the city’s foremost musical institutions, such as Music Academy, Polish Theater, Pomeranian Philharmonic, and Opera Nova, to name just a few. 

The district’s central park, Jana Kochanowski Park, features various public musical instruments made of metal and wood for anyone to have fun with.

See disputed statue of the archer 

Jana Kochanowski Park is also home to the city’s most famous statue, showcasing a young, naked female archer sculpted by Berlin artist Ferdinand Lepcke in 1908. 

Because of its appearance, the statue was often subject to several protests and attempts to dress her up or camouflage. However, when Poznan Mayer wanted to buy it out in 1920, the city gave it a second thought about its artistic value and decided to keep it. 

Although it changed its location several times to be less visible, it finally found its resting place in this park. 

Marvel at the stunning former Realschule

Realschule is a type of secondary school in Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. When Bydgoszcz was part of the Prussian Empire, the government also decided to build a realschule there. 

The building, completed in 1906, is a masterpiece of Berlin architects Carl Zaar and Rudolf Vahn done in Art Nouveau. In 1923, to mark the 450th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus, the building adopted his name, Copernicanum. 

Over the years, it used to be the municipal junior high school of sciences, the railway technical school, and even the military hospital during the Nazi occupation. Today, it is now a university building. 

Hunt down some street art

If you are an art lover, there are a few spots to admire murals and street art in Bydgoszcz. Since we spent only a day in Bydgoszcz, we managed to see the murals in the city center and the areas close to it. 

You can find a mural honoring the architect Józef Święcicki at the corner of Gdańska and Cieszkowskiego streets and in front of his former house created in 2018. 

Piotrus Pan, or Peter Pan, mural is one of the most famous and big street art in Bydgoszcz, covering a wall of a ten-story residential house. It is a collective work of nine artists. 

You’ll find Ptasiek, or Birdie, another collective mural in Bydgoszcz inspired by William Warton’s novel, close to Peter Pan.

Gdanska Street is home to a piece dedicated to Marian Rejewski, the Polish mathematician and cryptologist who rebuilt the Nazi German military Enigma cipher machine without seeing it in 1932, thanks to the limited documents provided by French military intelligence. 

Of course, the exact pins of street art are in the Bydgoszcz activities map provided above. 

Don’t miss the fascinating fountain

Deluge Fountain is a pride of the city, showcasing the Genesis flood story in the bible, where animals and people are left as they could not find shelter at Noa’s arch. 

The fountain was unveiled in 1904; however, in 1943, the 8870kg of metal sculptures were seized and melted down for German World War efforts. 

In 2004, the city of Bydgoszcz decided to bring back the statues to the fountain. The restoration took ten years and was reopened in 2014 to commemorate 110 years since the original opening. 

Look at the iconic hotel 

The Hotel Pod Orlem, or Under the Eagle Hotel, is a 19th-century architectural masterpiece of Józef Święcicki. It has always been a hotel since its construction in 1896 and was owned by Emil Bernhardt, a hotel manager who studied in Switzerland.

The massive eagle statue on the top of the building with its wings open is absolutely stunning, and the façade features elements typical of the Neo-baroque style. Apparently, as a signature, Święcicki hid his portrait among the face statues that adorn the exterior. 

Visit the main post office

The Main Post Office is one of the most breathtaking buildings on the Brda river bank. This massive brick building in the ‘Prussian national style’ was constructed at the end of the 19th century using former stables as some of its facilities. The style was a requirement for every new official building in the Prussian Empire. 

It implies a Neo-Gothic style, with Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Romanesque, and Round-arch style elements. 

Accessible via Stary Port and Jagiellonska streets, the building is still a post office, open 24 hours, and listed on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage List.

Gape at charming granaries

Lined on the Brda River, these German timber framing architectural marvels are the symbol of the city. 

These picture-perfect structures near the Old Market Square were built at the turn of the 19th century to store grain and similar products. They worked as their initial purpose for more than 150 years and are very similar to the granaries of Gdansk, also built at the waterfront harbor.

Today, the building is part of the Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum, showcasing temporary and permanent exhibitions about the city. 

Sitting on the bench and admiring them from the other side of the river was one of my favorite things to do in Bydgoszcz. 

Make sure to notice the hanging statue

One of the unique monuments of Bydgoszcz is the Man Crossing the River hanging statue over the Brda River, depicting a tightrope walker attempting to cross the river from one side to another. 

Created by Jerzy Kędziora, the statue has graced the cityscape since 2004 and commemorates the country’s entrance to the European Union.  

The gravity center of this remarkable statue is moved below the rope, making it maintain its balance. But the illusion it creates and the craftsmanship are mindblowing. 

Cross the river towards the Old Market Square

Stary Rynek, or Old Market Square, is where King Casimir III the Great established Bydgoszcz in 1346. It is the center of the city and locals’ social life, where many public gatherings and concerts occur. Christmas Market is also laid out here if you are traveling to Poland in winter. 

Like many such squares in other cities, you’ll find plenty of bars and restaurants here for lunch, a quick bite, or a cup of coffee. My favorite hot chocolate from E. Wedel is also here. 

The tenement houses that surround the square date back to the 18th and 19th centuries. One important building here is house No.15, where Master Twardowski appears in the top window among the clouds of smoke accompanied by music tunes every day at precisely 1:13 pm and 9:13 pm. 

Master Twardowski is a Polish literature and folklore sorcerer who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for special powers. According to the legend, the No.15 building used to be an inn called Gospoda Pod Zgorzelcem, where the sorcerer stayed during his visit in 1560.

One of the important buildings near the square is St. Martin and St. Nicholas Cathedral, often called Bydgoszcz Cathedral, standing on the shores of Brda. The Catholic church constructed in the 15th century has a distinguished Gothic style. 

Book a visit to the quirkiest museum in Bydgoszcz 

One of the must-visit tourist attractions in Bydgoszcz that we unfortunately missed out on is the Museum of History of Soup and Dirt. 

As I said earlier, my Bydgoszcz visit was spontaneous and last-minute. Therefore, I couldn’t get a spot on an English language tour. 

Like the Croissant Museum in Poznan, the Museum of History of Soup and Dirt is not a typical museum where you can show up and see the exhibits. It’s a show that also includes a soap-making workshop. That’s why it is essential to book a spot on their website. Unfortunately, they won’t let you inside even if you walked in like we did. 

They offer guided Polish and English tours to learn more about the history of 5,000 years of human hygiene and how people took care of themselves in the past. 

The whole experience with soap-making lasts for around 50 minutes, making it one of the unique things to do in Bydgoszcz. Moreover, you can take your handmade soap as a souvenir at home. 

Stroll through the Mill Island

Wyspa Młyńska, or Mill Island is among the most stunning and atmospheric places in Bydgoszcz. Located a few steps from the Old Market Square, the area was an ‘industrial’ city center from the Middle Ages and several hundred years afterward. 

Most of the buildings on the island date from the 19th century, but the so-called Biały Spichlerz, the White Granary, is from the end of the 18th century. 

The water, historic red-brick tenement houses, greenery, and footbridges make up the area’s atmospheric cityscape. 

You can access Mill Island from various streets, but I loved walking down the so-called ‘Magic Stairs’, a tiny staircase from Długa Street leading to the metal footbridge. The staircase was featured in the movie ‘Magic Tree’ by Andrzej Maleszka; hence came the name. 

The island is full of museums, bars, cafes, and restaurants. You can stroll down the canal and admire the buildings along it that also contributed to the city’s moniker ‘Little Venice,’ sit down at one of the benches to relax or soak in the scenery, or get on Bydgoszcz water tram and have a different vantage point of the city. 

Meander through the former factory

Right on Mill Island, one of the historic buildings graces its skyline – Rother’s Mills, a 19th-century factory producing flour that operated until the 1990s. 

After recent renovations, the mill reopened in November 2022 as a Culture Center. The interior reflects its history and is interesting to wander around. You can also visit permanent and temporary exhibitions, go on a free observation deck, or enjoy a snack or a beverage at a cafe. 

Note: they change their opening hours occasionally, so it’s better to consult their website. 

Hike up a small hill to visit an old water tower

The park in the Szwederowo district is home to a bold Neo-Gothic red-brick water tower overlooking the city, yet entirely hidden from the eyes. 

At the end of the 19th century, following the city’s surprising economic and demographic growth, essential municipal investments, including water supply and sewage network, had to be carried out. Until the 1890s, city residents could only get water from wooden wells. 

At the turn of the 19th century, the city’s new water system included 20 deep wells in the northern municipal forest. Water was pumped into the network and the water tower using a gas-driven contraption scheme. 

The current water tower, built from 1898 to 1899 and opened in 1900, was designed by Berlin architect Franz Marshall, while the construction work was implemented by Wilhelm Rothe & Cie Company. 

This 45-meter-high tower had a water tank that would hold 1,260 cubic meters of water, supplying the city with water in peak demand. 

Due to its location, the tower was also used as a city viewpoint people could access by paying a fee. The tower was decommissioned in 1990. 

Since 2012, it has been turned into a museum where you can learn more about the city’s water supply and sewage systems, see the antique bathroom and toilet fittings, and look at the archival photos, to name a few. 

And if you are up for walking up 176 steps on a metal spiral staircase to the observation platform, you’ll be rewarded with 360 panoramic views of Bydgoszcz. 

• Opening hours: Mon-Thur 10 am – 4 pm; Sat-Sun 10 am – 8 pm; Closed on Fridays. More info 
• Entrance Fee: adults – 10 PLN. 

Tour the former explosives factory

Around 9km from the city center, a complex hidden in the park has a dark past, making it one of the things to do in Bydgoszcz for those who love dark tourism.  

During World War II, Nazi Germany built here ammunitions factory called DAG Fabrik Bromberg, making smokeless powder, TNT, and nitroglycerin for the Wehrmacht, or the German Army in the Third Reich, with the forced labor of about 40,000 workers that were kept in the worst conditions. 

Turned into a museum in 2011, Exploseum tells the story of its past in the original building and its underground tunnels. The exposition also showcases the life of the forced laborers comprised of concentration camp inmates and prisoners of war, with the majority being Poles, the history of the factory itself, and Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. 

• Opening hours: Tue-Sun 10 am – 6 pm. Closed on Mondays. 
• Entrance fee: adults – 20 PLN

Go on day trips from Bydgoszcz

Having a Bydgoszcz weekend getaway is also ideal for exploring the nearby towns, including Poznan, Torun, and Gniezno, to name a few. 

Torun is around a 1:30-hour train ride away, famous for its medieval Old Town and cathedral. Listed as UNESCO World Heritage sights, there are plenty of things to do in Torun to keep you busy for a whole day. 

The less-known yet captivating city of Poznan is almost at the same distance as Torun by train. This fifth-largest city boasts spectacular Renaissance-style buildings in its Market Square. One of my favorite things to do in Poznan is to wander its streets, hunt down gorgeous Art-Nouveau buildings, spend time at its cafes, and eat the famous St. Martin’s Croissant, to name a few. 

Gnioezno is the closest small, tranquil town that used to be the first historical Polish capital in the 10th century. Some important Gniezno sights include the Gothic Cathedral, its charming Old Town with historic townhouses, the Gniezno locomotive depot, and tiny bunny statues. 

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