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Poland Poland observation tower

Bismarck tower on Wielka Sowa

You can see 151 km from here, looking south-west.

Calculating the panorama…

Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.

The view

Up to 151 km away.

Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.

77out of 100

Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).

  • 151 kmFarthest ridgelooking south-west
  • 100%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
  • 399Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
  • 1,014 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint

From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.

The sun

The best sunsets are in April and from August to September.

When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.

  1. Jansouth-westsets on an open horizon19%
  2. Febwest2 min before the sea-level sunset20%
  3. Marwest6 min before the sea-level sunset28%
  4. Aprwest4 min before the sea-level sunset38%
  5. Maynorth-westsets on an open horizon34%
  6. Junnorth-west2 min before the sea-level sunset32%
  7. Julnorth-westsets on an open horizon35%
  8. Augnorth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset39%
  9. Sepwest6 min before the sea-level sunset37%
  10. Octwest2 min before the sea-level sunset29%
  11. Novsouth-west2 min before the sea-level sunset22%
  12. Decsouth-westsets on an open horizon20%
  • Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
  • Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
  • %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).

The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.

The place

Bismarck tower on Wielka Sowa.

Bismarck tower on Wielka Sowa is an observation tower in Poland, 1,014 m above the sea.

On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 151 km away, looking south-west.

399 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Sněžka (1,603 m), 53 km away.

The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 100% of the circle.

The skies are clearest in April and from August to September.

Wielka Sowa w Górach Sowich
Stanislaw.bochnak · CC BY-SA 4.0

Get there and stay

Plan the visit

A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The viewpoint and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.

Bismarck tower on Wielka Sowa seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 27other viewpoints within 5 kmHistoryczny punkt widokowy and 26 more
  • 57named peaks within 5 kmWielka Sowa, Mała Sowa, Rymarz and 54 more
  • 1cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
  • 36marked trails within 3 kmSzklarska Poręba - Pasterka, Główny Szlak Sudecki, European long distance path E3 - part Poland (west) and 33 more
  • 34shelters and huts within 5 km
  • 27car parks within 3 km
  • 6restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • 11campsites within 10 kmWilcza Zagroda, Camping Sudety, Kemping Stawy Marcowe and 8 more
  • 154places to stay within 10 kmSchronisko Górskie Orzeł, Agroturystyka Puszczyk, Austeria Krokus and 151 more
  • visitor centres within 5 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

What you see from Bismarck tower on Wielka Sowa, and what is near.

Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.

Peakyas135 mountains within 25 km
Wielka Sowa1,015 m · this placeMała Sowa972 m · 1.4 kmSłoneczna949 m · 5.4 kmKalenica964 m · 6.0 kmWaligóra936 m · 15 kmRuprechtický Špičák880 m · 15 kmChełmiec850 m · 22 kmSzczeliniec Wielki922 m · 24 km
Lakeyas1 lakes within 15 km
Lubachowski Zbiornik Wodny0.3 km² · 8.9 km
Forestyas1 forests and trees within 15 km
Nature reserve Góra Choina · 9.5 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The view, as people saw it.

Na szczycie Wielka Sowa Pieszyce
Piesz · CC BY-SA 4.0
Wielka Sowa po zmroku
Piesz · CC BY-SA 4.0
Wieża widokowa, Wielka Sowa 01
Kamil Kulawik · CC BY-SA 4.0

Other viewpoints nearby.

Bismarck tower on Wielka Sowa

Poland

  • 77Viewyas Score
  • 151 kmFarthest ridge
  • 399Peaks in view
  • 1,014 mAltitude

Kalenica

Poland · 6 km

  • 77Viewyas Score
  • 150 kmFarthest ridge
  • 371Peaks in view
  • 954 mAltitude

See the guide

Observation tower on Chełmiec

Poland · 22 km

  • 76Viewyas Score
  • 141 kmFarthest ridge
  • 336Peaks in view
  • 849 mAltitude

See the guide

Ślęża

Poland · 26 km

  • 73Viewyas Score
  • 122 kmFarthest ridge
  • 368Peaks in view
  • 706 mAltitude

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q81366) · CC0
SunJ. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms
Peaks in viewPeakyas (Wikidata, CC0)
Panorama and altitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
CloudsNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Lakeyas, Forestyas, Birdyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.