Every design for Jelenia Góra

Inside the Bazylika pw. Świętych Erazma i Pankracego, a few steps from the restored marketplace and its seventeenth-century town hall, it is easy to forget that the ski slopes of Karpacz and Szklarska Poręba are only a short drive away. Jelenia Góra – Hirschberg in German, literally 'deer mountain' – grew rich on the trade routes between the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia and the east, and on the weaving that followed.

For many who know it, the town carries a sense of calm continuity. It came through the Second World War undamaged and kept its Baroque churches, parks and gardens; after the German population was expelled, it filled with Polish families from all over the country who made it their own. Childhood weekends here tend to mean the spa of Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój, the oldest spa district, or a walk into the Karkonosze, whose national park keeps its headquarters in Sobieszów.

The Muzeum Karkonoskie tells the region's story, the Pozostałości zamku w Jeleniej Górze mark the old castle, and the Zabytkowy tramwaj typ N stands as a reminder of an earlier city. Look south from the centre and the long ridge of the Karkonosze closes off the view.