Wieliczka Salt Mine

 

This fascinating excursion to one of the oldest salt mines in Europe takes you 136 meters below ground. Wieliczka is listed on the UNESCO List of World Cultural Heritage

 

 

 

 

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price includes: private transport, entrance ticket, english guide

 

 

Wieliczka Mine

Visitors may take a walk of 3 km through 3 levels of the mine down to 136 meters below ground level through chambers and passageways excavated in the 17th century. On the way visitors see underground chambers and chapels hewn out in the saltrock, statues of saints sculpted in salt, and saline lakes.

The mine has operated continuously since its construction in the Middle Ages. Today it reaches a depth of more than one thousand feet on nine levels with close to one hundred ninety miles of corridors, galleries, chambers and underground lakes. The mine currently has three distinct functions: as an active, working mine, as the world's first subterranean therapeutic sanitarium used in the treatment of bronchial and allergic asthma, and as an important tourist attraction for visitors to Krakow. People who tour it visit only the first three levels, along a winding route of nearly two miles. As they follow the subterranean paths, they wander past artistic salt carvings and the 17th century solid salt St. Anthony chapel, the oldest original creation in the mine.