An over view of long-term, sys tem atic ob ser va tions of trace gas com po si tion of the at mo sphere over south ern Po land is given. Three ma jor green house gases (CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O) and se lected halocarbons (freons F-11, F-12 and F-113; chlo ro form; 1,1,1-trichloroetane; car bon tet ra chlo ride; sulphur hexafluoride and trifluoromethyl sul phur pentafuoride) were mon i tored. Mea sure ments were per formed at two lo ca tions of con trast ing char ac ter is tics: (1) the high-moun tain site Kasprowy Wierch, High Tatras, rep re sent ing at mo spheric con di tions rel a tively free of lo cal in flu ences, and (2) two sites lo cated in the Kraków ag glom er a tion, rep re sent ing a typ i cal ur ban at mo sphere. The data avail able for Kraków and Kasprowy Wierch were compared with the Mace Head data, rep re sent ing a ma rine re gional back ground. The im pact of con ti nen tal sources for some of the mea sured gases is clearly seen in the Kraków and Kasprowy Wierch re cords. The mean off set be tween CH 4 con cen trations re corded at Kasprowy Wierch and at Mace Head for the pe riod 1998-2012 is 20.7 ppb and stems from con ti nen tal emis sions of this gas orig i nat ing mainly from anthropogenic ac tiv i ties (leaks of nat u ral gas dis tri bu tion net works, land fills, live stock). For N 2 O, a sim i lar off set of ca. 1 ppb for the pe riod 2009-2012 was ob served. Al though the long-term con cen tration trends of se lected halogenated com pounds mea sured in Kraków co in cide in gen eral with the re spec tive trends in Mace Head data, the Kraków re cords con tain nu mer ous spikes and pe ri ods of en hanced con cen tra tions, re flect ing the im pact of local sources of these com pounds. The im pact of a leg is la tive frame work en forced in Po land in July 2002, reg u lat ing the trade, stor age and dis posal of ozone-de plet ing sub stances, is vis i ble in the Kraków re cord of halogenated com pounds.