Opole

Opole is the capital city of Opole Voivodeship, in south west Poland. The historical capital of Upper Silesia was badly damaged during the USSR invasion of Silesia at the end of World War II, but many fine houses in the old town have been rebuilt. The city is known for the one of the most popular song festivals in Poland, which takes place each year in June.



Understand
Opole is one of the oldest cities in Poland, continuously inhabited since the 8th century and quickly becoming an important centre of power, defense and trade. It is considered the historical capital of Upper Silesia, being much older than cities like Katowice, which grew rapidly only during the industrial revolution of the 19th century.

Opole has been a capital of its own Duchy carved out of Poland in the 13th century, when the Polish Piast dynasty started dividing the country into local hereditary fiefdoms. This lasted until the 16th century, when the dynasty died out and a complicated history of the city and region changing hands begun, with it ending in Prussia and later the German Empire, with Germans becoming the majority. After the Second World War, Opole was given to Poland and much of the local German population expelled.

With less than 120,000 inhabitants, Opole is now the smallest city to be a regional capital in Poland by population, and its voivodeship has the smallest population as well.

By plane
The nearest international airports are in the nearby cities of Katowice and Wrocław.

From Katowice Airport and Wroclaw Airport to Opole, there is aaeroBUS.pl bus with door2door service.



By train
The city's main train station is, situated on a railway mainline to Wrocław. It sees busy long-distance and local traffic, including Express Intercity Premium trains. Travel time varies depending on the class of train, with the shortest time needed to get to major direct destinations from Opole being:


 * Wrocław - 45 minutes
 * Częstochowa - 50 minutes
 * Katowice - 1h15mins
 * Wałbrzych - 1h40mins
 * Kraków - 2h25mins
 * Jelenia Góra - 2h40mins
 * Warsaw - 3 hours
 * Rzeszów- 5h40mins
 * Szczecin - 6 hours

See the PKP Intercity interactive timetable for details on trains and times.

By car
You can easily get there by car from Katowice and Wrocław by the A4 Motorway.

By bus
Opole has seen many of the inhabitants of the city and the region emigrate temporarily or permanently to Western Europe seeking better-paid jobs, especially concerning low-skilled, manual labour. Therefore, an extensive network of affordable coach services grew to cater to their travelling needs. Moreover, express bus travel has seen much growth in the 2010s in Poland and Opole is featured in many timetables of local operators.
 * One of the largest coach operators in Poland, Sindbad, is based in Opole and thus the city features in many of their timetables
 * PolskiBus runs a connection via Opole from Berlin and its Schoenefeld Airport through Wrocław further to Katowice, Kraków and Zakopane. The journey from the farthest ends of the route to Opole takes 5 hours.

By public transit
Opole's public transit is limited to buses, operated by MZK Opole. Their website is in Polish only, but features a handy diagram of all bus lines. A single ticket costs 2.60 zł (1.30 zł for students and 1.60 zł for children), and a 24h ticket comes cheaper than four singles. There is a plethora of other ticket types that are generally not that useful for a casual traveller, but it is important to remember that a different (higher) tariff applies when crossing the city limits on some lines that reach out beyond Opole to neighbouring suburbs.

By bike
Opole has a municipal bikesharing system called Opole Bike , operated by Nextbike, meaning that you can use it if you have a Nextbike account opened in another city. Otherwise, you need a mobile phone number and a credit card with a very straightforward registration process. The bikes are intended for short rides by getting from one bike rental station to another, which is why the first 20 minutes are free. The first hours is PLN 2, and the following ones are PLN 4 each.

Bikes can be rented and returned only to the automated rental stations, where solar-powered kiosks can be used to enter one's mobile number and code to retrieve a bike or return it. When returning, make sure to dock the bike properly. If unsure, check with the kiosk if your return was registered properly, otherwise you may be liable to a huge fine if the bike is deemed "occupied" by the renter over 24 hours. Same applies in case the bike you rented gets misplaced or damaged.

Museums





 * Central POW Museum (Muzeum Jeńców Wojennych) Minorytów 3, M-Fr 8.00-17.00, free entrance



Do

 * Football: Odra Opole play soccer in I Liga, the second tier. Their home ground Odra Stadium (capacity 3300) is 1 km northwest of town centre.
 * Football: Odra Opole play soccer in I Liga, the second tier. Their home ground Odra Stadium (capacity 3300) is 1 km northwest of town centre.
 * Football: Odra Opole play soccer in I Liga, the second tier. Their home ground Odra Stadium (capacity 3300) is 1 km northwest of town centre.

Eat




Consulates

 * 🇩🇪 Germany

Go next

 * The Castle of Moszna is a fairytale edifice in a beautiful park and a popular day trip destination (half an hour by car from Opole)
 * Brzeg, an oft-overlooked historic town in the region, is 20 minutes by train and 40 by car
 * Wrocław, a large city rich in history and heritage, is less than an hour by train and a little more by car, making it possible to do a day trip there