Wieliczka Salt Mine
Wieliczka Salt Mine
The Salt Mine at Wieliczka is a unique underground complex that
has been in continuous use since its construction in the Middle
Ages and is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Monument. The series
of labyrinthine tunnels, chambers, galleries and underground lakes
are spread over nine levels and reach a depth of more than 1,000ft
(304m), but visitors are restricted to a tour of three levels.
Following winding passageways, hand-hewn between the 17th and 19th
centuries, visitors are guided to magnificently carved chapels,
past salt sculptures created by previous mine workers and through
huge crystalline caverns. Among the chambers is the oldest creation
in the mine, the 17th century solid salt Chapel of St Anthony. The
highlight of the tour is the Blessed Kinga Chapel, dedicated to the
patron saint of Polish mine workers. Everything in this huge ornate
chapel is carved from salt, including the altar and chandeliers,
and the walls are covered in beautiful sculptured pictures. A dark,
clanking lift whisks visitors back to the surface at the end of the
guided tour. The world's first subterranean therapeutic sanatorium
is situated 656ft (200m) below the surface and makes use of the
saline air for the treatment of asthma. There is also a Salt-Works
museum that documents the history of the mine and the local
geological formation with primitive mining tools and machines on
display.
Address: Ul. Danilowicza 10, Wieliczka;
Telephone: (12) 278 7302;
E-mail: turystyka@kopalnia.pl;
Website: www.kopalnia.pl;
Transport: Buses and minibuses leave from outside the train station, or there is the local Krakow-Wieliczka train;
Opening time: Daily 7.30am to 7.30pm (April to October), and 8am to 5pm (November to March). Closed on 1 January, Easter Sunday, 1 November, and 4, 24, 25 and 31 December;
Admission: 46 zl, concessions available. Guided tours only. A 10 zl fee is charged for taking photos and filming
Prisoners awaiting release from Aushwitz © Auschwitz Museum
Auschwitz Memorial Museum
The Auschwitz concentration camp is actually made up of three
camps - Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau and Auschwitz III.
Together the complex forms the largest cemetery in the
world preserved as a sombre memorial to the victims of
the Holocaust, commemorating the hundreds of thousands of
people exterminated there by the Nazis during the Second World War.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum was established in 1947 and visitors
have access to both camps and can wander freely around the
structures, ruins and gas chambers, and visit the exhibits
displayed in the surviving prison blocks at Auschwitz I. The hushed
atmosphere is one of shock and revulsion from the moment visitors
enter the barbed-wire compound through the iron gate, ironically
inscribed with the words ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (Work
Makes Free). The buildings contain displays of photographs and
horrific piles of personal articles of the victims, including
battered suitcases, and thousands of spectacles, hair and shoes
collected from the bodies. The experience is vivid and disturbing.
There are also general exhibitions dedicated to the Jews and their
history as well as an interesting documentary film screened in the
museum’s cinema. Birkenau sees far fewer tourists as it has
less visitor facilities and much of the camp was destroyed by the
retreating Nazis, but it is here that the sheer scale of the
tragedy can be experienced, with a viewing platform to give some
perspective over the vast fenced in area stretching as far as the
eye can see. Birkenau was the principal camp where the
extermination of millions took place, a chillingly efficient set-up
with rows of barracks and four colossal gas chambers and ovens.
Purpose-built railway tracks lead through the huge gateway,
terminating in the camp, by means of which victims were transported
from the ghettos to the camp in crowded box-like carts, often being
led straight into the gas chambers upon arrival.
Address: Ul. Wiezniow Oswiecimia 20;
Telephone: +48 (0)33 843 2022/844 2077;
E-mail: muzeum@auschwitz.org.pl;
Website: www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl;
Transport: There are regular coach and rail services from Krakow (one-hour journey), and a shuttle bus runs between Auschwitz I and Birkenau from mid-April to October;
Opening time: Daily 8am to 3pm (December to February), 8am to 4pm (March and November), 8am to 5pm (April and October), 8am to 6pm (May and September), 8am to 7pm (June, July and August);
Admission: Free. Documentary film is 2 zl
