Kowary is a spa town with a specific microclimate conducive to regeneration and relaxation. It lies between the Karkonosze Mountains, Rudawy Janowickie and the Jeleniogórska Valley, on the Jedlica River.
The famous adits in Kowary have a long history. In the middle of the 12th century, Walloons came here from Western Europe - prospectors of ores and minerals. They had the knowledge and the tools to wrest the treasures from the Earth. So they started mining the ore. Today, you can see the effects of their activities by visiting the underground tourist route Adits of Kowary. Underground galleries, caves and chambers will take us to another world... We can even meet herbalists in one of the chambers, preparing medicinal mixtures from the herbs of the Karkonosze Mountains.
In the 16th century, Kowary received city rights. At that time, they were already one of the leading centers of Lower Silesia iron industry. However, in the 17th century the city was destroyed as a result of the Thirty Years' War and most of the mines were flooded. He developed for it weaving industry. Mining of iron ores was resumed only after the First World War, and then the exploitation of uranium ore deposits began. Until the 1990s, Kowary was an important industrial center.
Today Kowary is above all tourist destination. It offers cross-country trails on the slope of Góra Wałowa and on the Okraj Pass. The area around Kowary is also a place very much liked by mountain bikers, paragliders and trekking enthusiasts.

Apart from adit what else is worth seeing in Kowary? Town hall is considered one of the prettiest urban buildings in Lower Silesia. Apart from that Old town in Kowary consists of rows of historic tenement houses, built at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. At noon in the Old Town, listen to the bugle call with elements of a blacksmith's hammer - a symbol of the city's long mining history. In 2014, it was even built in Kowary Mining Open Air Museum, with an exhibition of old mining equipment and machinery.
Other attractions of Kowary are, for example Saint Anne's Chapel. It is a late Baroque building on an elliptical plan, with an octagonal lantern, covered with an onion-shaped dome. From the hill on which it is located, you can admire the picturesque panorama of Kowary and Rudawy Janowickie. Other monuments of Kowary are Smyrna, a beautiful baroque and classicist palace Palace in Ciszyca with a romantic story in the background…
Children - and adults! - they love to explore Miniature Park of Lower Silesia Monumentsin which we will find old buildings reproduced in 1:25 scale - palaces, monasteries and old towns of Lower Silesian cities. Being in Kowary, it is still worth going to Executioner's house. Medieval torture tools are shown in a historic building, inhabited years ago by the last city executioner. A bit scary but very fascinating exhibit!
In addition, in Kowary we have the opportunity to travel in time to another era, namely the People's Republic of Poland. Museum of Sentiments is a space arranged in the same way as the interiors of apartments or workplaces in that period.