The town's set piece is the seventeenth-century Palace of the Kraków Bishops above the cathedral, with one of Poland's best-preserved Baroque interiors and a serious geological collection inside the National Museum. Just below sits the cathedral and a quiet old market square; the pedestrianised Sienkiewicza Street running south is the long axis along which Kielce drinks coffee, eats lunch, and meets its friends.
Beyond the obvious sights, Kielce has some good oddities — the Kadzielnia limestone reserve in the centre of town, with an open-air amphitheatre cut into the old quarry; the very enjoyable Toy Museum; the wooded Karczówka hill with its 17th-century monastery; and, for visitors interested in Poland's modern history, the memorial at Planty 7/9 to the victims of the 1946 Kielce pogrom. The Holy Cross Mountains — Świętokrzyski National Park, the Benedictine monastery on Łysa Góra, and Paradise Cave — are an easy day trip. See the Day Trips section.