Szczecin lies in the Oder valley, surrounded to the west and north by moraine hills, so views are not hard to find. Some of the spots are former lookout towers, some are slopes with a bench and a path, and a few are rises linked with the history of the city. Below is a selection of places in Szczecin, in the Lower Oder Valley, on Wolin Island and in Karsibór, with notes on exactly what can be seen from them and in what condition each place is.

Lookout towers: Gocław, Quistorp, Karsibór

Bismarck Tower, today called the Gocław Tower, stands on Zielone Wzgórze in the Gocław housing estate. It is a 26-metre reinforced-concrete structure with a viewing terrace, opened on 10 August 1921. According to Wikipedia it was the most expensive of the Bismarck towers built, costing 200,000 marks. Wilhelm Kreis's design was modelled on the Mausoleum of Theodoric in Ravenna. Visits are sometimes suspended because of renovation work, so the current status is given on the tower's website. About 400 metres further on, in Stołczyn, is the viewpoint on Górska Street. It lies on the edge of the Warszewo Hills, and Wikipedia writes that the contrast with the Lower Oder Valley makes their summits good viewpoints over the Beech Hills, the Goleniów Plain, Lake Dąbie and the Szczecin Lagoon. The range of the view depends on the weather and on how overgrown the slope is.

Quistorp Tower in Arkonka Forest is a ruin today. It was built in 1900-1904 to a design by Franz Schwechten, was 45 metres high and had a viewing terrace and a summer café on the ground floor. The circumstances of its destruction are not clear: according to one version it was destroyed by an Allied air raid in 1944, according to another the Germans blew it up in 1945. The tower is gone, and the ruins lie on the “In the Footsteps of the Quistorps” educational trail.

Of a completely different kind is the lookout tower in the Karsibór Forest District. It is an eight-metre unroofed platform of larch wood, built as part of a sustainable tourism project in Natura 2000 areas. According to the Międzyzdroje Forest District, it offers a panorama of the Szczecin Lagoon, and the place is suitable for birdwatching. The tower stands by the “Karsibór Ferns” trail. The Forest District recommends arriving by bicycle along the cycle route, because the nearest place for a car is about 4.3 km away.

Hills above the Oder valley

The nature reserve Wzgórze Widokowe nad Międzyodrzem in Kołbaskowo municipality protects the conical hill of Morenka, which according to Wikipedia rises about 35 metres above its surroundings. The reserve was established in 1973. From the stone seat at the summit the Oder valley can be seen from Szczecin to Gryfino. The path from the north is steep, and the slopes are home to warmth-loving plants of xerothermic grassland, among them feather grass and pasqueflower.

Wzgórze Akademickie is 51 metres above sea level and lies in Zdroje Forest Park, in the Podjuchy district. The western part of the hill is part of the spoil heap of a former chalk mine, and from the summit Szczecin, the Lower Oder Valley and the Szczecin Uplands can be seen. The Trail to the Swedish Stone runs past it. Despite the name, the hill belongs to the forest, not to a university.

Napoleon Hill is an artificial mound about 8 metres high, at the junction of Unii Lubelskiej and Klonowica streets. According to Wikipedia it was piled up in 1808 by French soldiers to celebrate the birthday of Napoleon I. After 1814 the Prussians removed the emperor's bust and put up a cast-iron column with an Iron Cross, of which only the column survives to this day. The summit is wooded, so this is a place that is more historical than scenic.

Far to the south, in the Cedynia Hills, rises Czcibor Hill, 54.5 metres above sea level. A 15-metre monument of an eagle stands there, unveiled in 1972 on the thousandth anniversary of the Battle of Cedynia of 972. According to Thietmar's Chronicle, Czcibor, the brother of Mieszko I, attacked from the hill near the stronghold of Cidini. 270 stone steps lead to the summit. The name of the monument is given in different ways: Wikipedia writes of the Monument to the Polish Victory on the Oder, and the Cedynia municipality's website of the Monument to the Millennium of the Polish State.

The Wolin cliffs and the tower in Świdwin

On Wolin Island, in Wolin National Park, two hills have viewpoints over the Pomeranian Bay. Kawcza is 61 metres above sea level, and its viewpoint above the cliff lies at a height of 56.9 metres. A black walking trail leads to it from Międzyzdroje, and at the cliff you must keep to the marked path. Gosań measures 93.4 metres and, according to Wikipedia, is one of the park's four viewpoints. It is an abrasion cliff with scree, whose slope changes under the action of waves, wind and rainwater. On the hill there are also the remains of an observation post from the 1950s, used by the 17th Fixed Artillery Battery in Międzyzdroje. The rules for moving around the park are given by its manager.

Outside the Szczecin region, in Świdwin, stands the Bismarck Tower on the edge of the Town Park. It is 22 metres high, built of brick and granite, and was completed in 1911 on the initiative of the local Beautification Society. According to Wikipedia it is not open to visitors, so it can be viewed from the outside.