Things to do
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Old City
The UNESCO-listed town laid out by Bernardo Morando, with the Great Market Square at its centre, exactly one hundred metres a side. Arcades run round the square in front of merchant houses painted in bright colours, some still crowned with carved attic parapets. Side streets lead to the smaller Salt and Water markets, and early morning is the time to see the square empty.
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Rotunda in Zamość
A round nineteenth century fort south of the old town that the German occupiers used as a prison and execution site. It is now a memorial and museum, with cells set around the circular courtyard and a war cemetery outside. Entry is free, and the site is a short walk from the Great Market Square.
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Zamość Cathedral
A Renaissance collegiate church built by Morando for the Zamoyski family, with stucco vaults and the founder's tomb in a side chapel. The free-standing bell tower beside it can be climbed for a view over the rooftops. The tower and the small museum of sacred art are ticketed and keep short hours outside summer.
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Zamość Fortress
The brick bastions that ringed the town, rebuilt by the Russian army in the nineteenth century and now partly restored. The Lviv Gate and the Old Lublin Gate still stand, and the seventh bastion has a guided route through its casemates and tunnels. Tours of the bastion run at set times and are ticketed.
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Zamość Synagogue
The Renaissance synagogue of the Sephardic merchants invited to the new town, built in the early seventeenth century with a richly stuccoed prayer hall. The occupiers used it as a carpentry workshop, which kept the building standing. It is now a Jewish cultural centre with a multimedia exhibition on the community, and opening hours are limited outside summer.
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Zamość Town Hall
The town hall on the north side of the Great Market Square, with a tall clock tower and a curving fan-shaped stair added in the eighteenth century. A bugle call sounds from the tower at noon. The building still houses the town council, so the interior is offices and the stair is the part to see.
