Zielona Góra is Poland's wine city, a green, student-filled place in the west of the country where vineyards once covered the surrounding hills. It is not a grand museum city like Krakow, but it has a distinct flavour: old Silesian streets, a lively university population, and a stubborn wine tradition that has survived wars, borders, communism, and fashion.
The centre is compact. The old market square and town hall make the natural starting point, with the Co-Cathedral of St Jadwiga a short walk away. The city's wine story is best understood at the Palm House and Wine Park, where the glasshouse rises above a historic vineyard hill, and at the Lubusz Land Museum, which includes a wine museum.
Zielona Góra is worth a spare day if you are crossing western Poland or coming in from Berlin, Poznan, or Wroclaw. Come for the wine identity rather than for blockbuster sights, and the city makes sense.