beauitfuf peace of poland
history on every single step
great food, nice people and low prices!!1
worth to see

One of the most amazing places I’ve ever visited, the salt mine in Wieliczka, just outside Krakow, was in operation from the Middle Ages until the late 1990’s (when salt mining became uneconomical). Since then, it’s become a sort of museum and art gallery.

It goes more than 320m straight down, but its excavated passages run more than 300km. Its age means you can see how mining technology varied over the centuries. Just descending in the creaky lift is an experience.

Only a tiny fraction of the old mine is now used for tourists. Some areas show the history of the mine in displays. The most fascinating, though, are the carvings. Hundreds of metres below the surface, artists have carved shapes in the salt crust left on the mine walls. There are countless statues and religious carvings. There’s an immense chapel, with a huge mural carving - all in salt - of the Last Supper. There’s an underground lake, too. It’s fascinating stuff, a massive subterranean monument to Polish industry and Catholicism over many years.

It’s been on UNESCO’s First World List of Cultural and Natural Heritage since 1978. It gets over a million tourists a year.