Wieliczka Salt Mine - Tarnow

Route: Krakow - Wieliczka Salt Mine - Tarnow - Krakow
Duration: 8 h
Firstly we will visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mine was include on UNESCO's First World List of Cultural and Natural Heritage, on September 8, 1978 together with 11 other sites from around the world. Indeed, the Wieliczka Mine reflects the progress of mining technology, the development of work organisation and management, and the introducing of industry legislation since the Middle Ages. The Wieliczka salt deposit extends over 5.5 kilometres and is between 0.5 and 1.5 km wide . During seven hundred years, 26 surface shafts and 180 smaller shafts connecting different levels of the mine were excavated. Explore magnificent chambers chiselled in salt, underground saline lakes, and unique statues at Poland's most visited tourist site.The tour takes you down 380 stairs of the 17th century shaft to a depth of 64 metres—the first level of the mine. Take a deep breath, taste the salt on your lips, experience the silence, then listen to the stories of the 700-year history of the mine. You'll pass through 23 beautiful chambers surrounded by salt in all shades of grey, black, and white.In the St. Anthony, Janowice, and Holy Cross Chapels, visitors will see beautiful altars and free-standing sculptures of religious, historical, or mythical subjects, sculpted in salt and in wood by miners over the last 300 years. In other chambers (Urszula, Spalone, Sielec) the work of miners and methods of extracting salt over the centuries are evidenced—the digging tools and the devices used to transport and lift salt from the mine.Throughout your underground journey, the mine will impact all of your senses. You'll admire the raw beauty of the lofty vaults and the play of light, shadow, and darkness. You'll see mysterious nooks and closed-off side tunnels. You can even lick the wall and taste the raw salt. The heart of the mine is the Chapel of St. Kinga, filled with beautifully illuminated religious bas-relief sculptures, carved in salt at the turn of the 19th and the 20th century. You will be mesmerised by the salt chandeliers, floor made of salt but polished like marble, or a brief multimedia spectacle in the Chapel. Next we will visit to Tarnow  which origins date from 1330, for it was in that year that a local village called Tarnowiec acquired the status of a town.  Tarnow  comes from the Galician atmosphere of the city, which has been preserved since the time of the imperial monarchy. The winding streets of the mediaeval town remain, as do fragments of the fortified walls as well as many Gothic and Renaissance buildings, all helping to create a magical atmosphere that can be experienced in no other place in the country. Tarnow is often dubbed the “Pearl of the Renaissance” by historians, and has several fascinating museums to boot. The most important part of this mediaeval-looking city is the Main Marketplace, lined with lavishly ornamented tenement houses, some of which still have Renaissance arcades. There you will see the Cathedral Basilica where you can see splendid tombstones of the Tarnowscy and Ostrogscy dynasties. After free time we return to Krakow.
Price: per person