Description: 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. Why? You need to see the Wieliczka Salt Mine by your own. 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 (East-West) and is between 0.5 and 1.5 km wide (North-South). During seven hundred years, 26 surface shafts and 180 smaller shafts connecting different levels of the mine were excavated.
The mining of the salt started on Level I (57 m underground), and over time reached Level IX (327 m underground). 2,350 chambers and over 240 km of galleries were carved. Despite the water, collapse and gas threats, the Wieliczka Mine excavations are considerably more durable than those of ore mines, thanks to which chambers excavated at the end of the Middle Ages and the early modern era have been preserved to our day. In order to better protect the most valuable excavations, a historic zone has been delimited in the Mine. As of 2004, it embraced 218 galleries and 190 chambers at Levels I - V. More than 20 are available to visitors in the Tourist Route (Levels I - III), and 16 at the Museum of Krakow Salt (Level III). The ongoing underground work aims primarily at protecting the Mine’s historical substance. The Wieliczka Salt Mine has the status of a historic monument and is subject to legal protection. Wieliczka Salt Mine is accessible to visitors daily:
April 1 to October 31: from 7.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. /closing time of ticket offices and last entry of tourists into the mine; November 2 to March 31: from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m./closing time of ticket offices and last entry of tourists into the mine; The mine is closed on: January 1, Easter Sunday, November 1, December 24 and 25.
On Easter Saturday, the mine is open from 7.30 a.m. to 2.00 p.m / on December 31 - from 8.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m.
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