The Bochnia Salt Mine in Bochnia, Poland, is one of the oldest salt mines in the world. Bochnia’s irrefutable asset is its exclusive combination of severity, naturalness, and state-of-the-art multimedia expositions, which never fail to captivate visitors. This is also the oldest mine in Poland; it was established between the 12th and 13th centuries, after salt was first discovered in Bochnia. This was the start of salt mining this year, and it became part of the Royal Mining Company, zupy krakowskie “Kraków salt works”.
In World War I, the mine activities were stopped and closed for some time. Bochnia Salt mine shafts are approximately 4.5km long and about 330 to 470 meters below the surface at 16 different levels. After more than 800 years of working, it now has the character of an underground town where tourists can ride by the underground train, slide down the world’s longest underground slide, and take an underground ferry ride across the brine lake flooding the chamber.
In 1981, it was declared a heritage monument, and excavated chambers, shafts, and passages form an underground town now open to tourists. It is situated in the middle of salt deposits creating effective patterns, the so-called Bochnia stripes, and where the “Wazynek” restaurant, a souvenir shop, a sports field, and a children’s playground are located. During the tour, tourists have a chance to explore a network of chambers and galleries with exceptional shapes and geological structures, including a horse stable, wooden treadmill expositions, and the Saint Kinga’s Chapel.
Moreover, one of the largest preserved chambers has been converted into a sanatorium. The mine has a precise microclimate, with a continuous temperature between 14–16 °C (57–61 °F), high humidity (about 70%), and favorable ionization of the air saturated, at the same time, by sodium chloride and valuable microelements, like magnesium, manganese, and calcium. The massive mine tour ends up with a stay in the largest chamber, the Wazyn, considered the heart of the mine. The biggest conserved chambers in the Bochnia mine, are placed on Sienkiewicz level.
The Mysiur Stable was created before 1771 by adapting a chamber exploited in the 18th century. It was arranged for horses that worked at an adjacent treadmill over the Wazyn shaft. In the chamber, the original wooden manger has been preserved. The site is one of the Polish National Historic Monuments, as designated in October, and in 2013, the mine was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
