A walk through the places where Stary Sącz remembers its dead: former residents, soldiers of two wars, and the Jews murdered on 17 August 1942.
The route begins on the Market Square and after a few minutes leads to the abandoned synagogue on ul. Staszica. It is one of the few traces of the Jewish community of Stary Sącz. The building can be seen from the street; the interior is not open to visitors.
The way then leads to the old cemetery by St Roch’s church, enclosed by a wall of 1783. Here lie the people who built the town. Next to it, in the municipal cemetery on ul. Węgierska, is war cemetery plot no. 348, designed in 1915 for those who fell in the First World War. Graves from the Second World War were later added to it. The number of soldiers buried here has not yet been established.
The last stretch leads out of the centre, to the forest above the Poprad. At Piaski, on 17 August 1942, the day the ghetto was liquidated, the Germans shot elderly and sick Jews from Stary Sącz. Studies give the number of victims as 95. A monument stands over the mass grave. These are places of memory, not attractions. Walk here in silence and leave yourself time to stop.
Along the way
- Market Square Nearly a hectare of cobbles beneath old lime trees
- The Synagogue – from the outside A silent witness to the Jews of Stary Sącz
- The Old Cemetery and St Roch’s Church The hill where those who shaped the town lie at rest
- War Cemetery No. 348 A burial plot for soldiers of two world wars
- The Grave and Memorial at Piaski A place of remembrance of the Jews murdered on 17 August 1942
Route: OpenStreetMap, routing.openstreetmap.de (foot), plotted 21.10.2026. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL licence), elevations: Copernicus DEM (Open-Meteo). The route and times are approximate – follow the waymarks on the ground.