Wieliczka Salt Mine

A trip to the mine is a perfect opportunity not only for children but also for adults. There are many possibilities to reach this small town: public transport of Krakow, train, transport companies. Tourist have several alternative ways of communication. Private transfer with a bus adapted to the number of participants is a great convenience and most likely best choice for visitors. The road network is perfectly developed, so the options are numerous. Below is a brief description of the place that everyone recall with sentiment. Wieliczka salt mine from the 13th century to 1772 was part of the Cracow Saltworks. The salt extracted in the mine is date back to the Miocene period. In 1976 mine was listed at the Polish national registry of monuments, and then in 1978 it was registered on the UNESCO list. The mine is a place visited by big numbers of tourists from Poland and abroad. Geologically, the mine is located in the western part of the Subcarpathian Salt Deposits, which age is estimated to be about 14 million years. Wieliczka salt layer is about 10 km long, 600-1500m wide and thick from a few to about 400 meters. Initially, salt was extracted through "salt sources" - spontaneous brine outflows. The first exploits date back to the Middle Neolithic period (3 thousand years BCE)Then, at the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth century, drilling of deeper wells began. Wieliczka became a place where shallow deposits of salt were found. Gradually, wells turned into shafts - paths of vertical communication with horizontally running sidewalks and excavations. As a result of dynamic changes, a mine was established. Due to its sanitary conditions, the Wieliczka mine conducts rehabilitation stays for people with upper respiratory tract disorders and asthma. The treatments are carried out in the Wassel Lake chamber. The mine provide unique microclimate, high humidity and sodium chloride content, constant temperature (about 14-16 ° C), pressure, ionization and high content of potassium, magnesium and calcium in the air. Cracow Saltworks Museum was established in 1951 at mine area . Its founder and long-time director was Professor Alfons Długosz. The Wieliczka Mine is one of the world mining facilities, that was operational since the Middle Ages to the present. The mine offers a Tourist Route and an underground exhibition of the Cracow Saltworks Museum. The Underground Tourist Route of Wieliczka mine was established at the turn of the 18th and 19th century. It is an amazing fact that about a million tourists annually visit about 3 km of a route consisting of 20 chambers, located at a depth of up to 135m. Another interesting fact is that to cover the entire route, you have to overcome about 800 stairs.

Panstwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz-Birkenau former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. The concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest of the German Nazi concentration and extermination centers. Over 1,1 million men, women and children lost their lives there. The camp is entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List (1979). During the visit you will see in what conditions the prisoners were made to live, how their slave labor day looked like. Thanks to the museum created on the premises every visitor can feel how many people lost their lives here.