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Sightseeing/tour: The Salt Mine Wieliczka |
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 The Salt Mine Wieliczka is the oldest salt enterprise on
Polish land dating back to the Middle Ages. For centuries it was the source of
the country’s wealth and the material foundation of its culture. Today it is
the most popular Polish tourist attraction.
Several hundreds of years of rock salt
exploitation have shaped the spatial arrangement of its excavated structure.
Lying on nine levels, concealed under the town, the mine reaches down to the
depth of 327 meters.
Subterranean Wieliczka consists of nearly 300 kilometers of
corridors and almost 3,000 chambers. The tourist route accessible to visitors
includes a 3.5-kilometres section located from 64 to 135 meters below ground
level. Magnificent chapels, captivating underground lakes, original tools and
equipment, traces of mining works allow us to understand the human struggle
against the elements, their work, their passion and their beliefs. The
Wieliczka miners have left behind many salt carvings and murals. After
sightseeing, tourists can rest in the chamber complex 125 meters underground
where they can find souvenir shops, a restaurant, and a post office.
Various types of social events are organized in
the undergrounds of the Wieliczka Salt Mine such as conferences, banquets,
weddings, the New Years Eve Ball, concerts, sport performances. Our guests are
often accompanied by legendary characters of the mine: the Treasurer, Princess
Kinga, the miner’s band plays concerts and exhibitions of salt carvings take
place.
Staying underground is particularly beneficial
for people with upper respiratory tract problems and allergies. These ailments
can be treated at the Underground Rehabilitation and Treatment Centre situated
in the Lake Wessel Chamber.
In 1976 the Wieliczka Salt Mine was entered in the
National Monuments Registry. Two years later, in 1978, the mine was inscribed
in UNESCO's First World List of Cultural and Natural Heritage, and in 1994 it
was acknowledged as the National History Monument
by the president of Poland. |
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