Photo: Андрей Романенко (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Culture and heritage · Poland
The Wieliczka Salt Mine
An underground city carved in salt: passages, lakes and a whole chapel of salt. 25 minutes from Kraków.
Kraków · Poland
The experience
Salt was mined at Wieliczka from the thirteenth century until the late twentieth, and centuries of mining left a maze of passages and chambers more than 300 metres deep. The mine was among the first twelve sites placed on the UNESCO list in 1978.
Visitors follow the Tourist Route, about 3 kilometres long and up to 135 metres deep, with a guide who tells the miners' story. You pass chambers where miners carved statues from salt and underground brine lakes, reaching St Kinga's Chapel at about 100 metres, where the floor, the chandeliers and the reliefs are all made of salt.
The temperature below stays between 14 and 16°C all year, so bring a light jacket even in summer. The tour starts with a long descent by stairs; the return is by lift.
We book a tour in the language you choose and a car from Kraków, and the visit pairs well with a day in the Old Town.
Poland
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