Resulting from the successful pilot project "Handbook of Art Monuments in Silesia" (published in 2005/06 in German and Polish versions), the project involves the documenting of the most significant architectural and art monuments in Poland in the form of printed travel guides following the model of the series on Germany founded by Georg Dehio. A comprehensive description of monuments on the borders of the current state of Poland will be devised through German-Polish collaboration under the leadership of the Herder Institute based on an examination of the objects, as well as on the current, international state of research, free from national bias.

The project, which is currently running, is dedicated to the historical region of Lesser Poland along with the regions around Krakow, Kielce/Sandomierz, Lublin and Przemysl/Rzeszow. Basic preparations for the work (object database, teams of authors) were carried out in the pre-project funded through the Jagiellonen University and the Polish Ministry of Science (2006/07). After funding was secured for the main project, the texts are initially being drafted in Polish. The content of the monument descriptions written by around 20 Polish authors will be checked in the section in Krakow and editorially processed, using the assistance of photographic documentation created within the scope of the project. Then the texts will be transferred into German and subjected to German editing, and the same applies to the introductions written by Polish specialists. Selected town maps and layouts, as well as general maps, will also be produced.