A spectacular contemporary building completed in 2012, with a sloping turf roof that you can walk up onto, a glass façade overlooking a reflecting pool, and a vast interior staircase. The Podlaskie Opera and Philharmonic punches well above its weight — for a city of 300,000 to have an opera company and a contemporary venue of this calibre is unusual in Poland.
Check the programme: opera, ballet, chamber music and large symphonic concerts run in season, and tickets are inexpensive compared with Warsaw. Even if you do not attend a performance, the building is worth the short walk west of the centre.