Museums

Kraków Saltworks Museum in Wieliczka

The Kraków Saltworks Museum in Wieliczka is a national cultural institution founded in 1951 on the initiative of Alfons Długosz, a teacher from Wieliczka. Its collections hold around 20,000 objects devoted to the history of salt mining, the development of mining technology and the story of the town. The museum occupies the inactive part of the Kraków saltworks — one of the oldest rock-salt mines in the world — and since 1978, together with the entire mine, it has been listed on the first UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Żupny Castle — main seat

The headquarters sit in the North Building of the Żupny Castle, the historic seat of the mine's management from the end of the 13th century until 1945. Four permanent exhibitions are on show: the Archaeological Exhibition, the History of the Town, the Gothic Hall and the Saltcellar Collection. Since 2013 the castle itself is also on the UNESCO list. Interiors can be visited Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00–17:00, with free admission on Saturdays; the courtyard stays open until dusk.

The underground route

The second part of the museum is a route inside the mine: 17 chambers on Level III linked by about 1.5 km of underground passages, visited on a ticket to the mine. Since November 2014 it includes a multimedia chapel of St. John Paul II, arranged in the restored Aleksandrowice II chamber.