Science and Human Evolution Park in Krasiejów

The visit begins in a "space dock hangar": a shuttle takes 50 passengers at a time, launches every 15 minutes and carries them 66 million years back, to the moment when life on Earth was almost wiped out. The Science and Human Evolution Park in Krasiejów, opened on 28 June 2014 within the JuraPark complex, tells the story of how we became human – with augmented reality, films and a virtual guide.

Krasiejów: a village where people dig in the Triassic

Krasiejów, in the Ozimek district near Opole, became famous for a former clay pit that turned out to be a rich site of Late Triassic vertebrates. The most numerous finds were large amphibians – metoposaurs – and the most remarkable is Silesaurus opolensis, described as a new "proto-dinosaur". JuraPark grew up on the excavation site, combining a palaeontological museum with an amusement park. The evolution park completes the story: after the dinosaurs, it is humanity's turn.

How the journey works

Stage one is the main hall, a "waiting room" with games, animations and virtual-reality activities. Then comes the shuttle: through the portholes you watch the dock recede, and once in orbit passengers "transfer" to an orbital station that doubles as a time machine. The rest is explored on foot. A digital guide, text and light signals steer the flow of visitors, and the "windows of prehistory" follow the human phylogenetic tree, full of dead-end branches. You walk along one branch to its end, then return to the main line.

What to see

• "The Development of the Knife" – tools from the stone hammers used by capuchin monkeys and chimpanzees' sticks, through flint blades, to the smartphone as the latest silicon "tool".
• Ötzi – an exhibit on the oldest known human mummy, born around 3300 BC near today's Bolzano and killed at about 45 on a glacier in the Ötztal Alps.
• "Evidence of Evolution" – a gallery of apes and human ancestors.
• "The Tomb" – a reconstruction of a princely grave from the Przeworsk culture.
• smaller displays on the history of vessels and writing, plus the interactive "We Are All Brothers" exhibition on kinship and how humans spread across the Earth.

Did you know?

The virtual guide speaks with the voice of one of the characters from the Polish dub of the Harry Potter films – fans of the saga may well recognise it. At its opening the venue was billed as the most modern museum of humankind in Europe.

Tripto tips

The evolution park is visited as part of a trip to JuraPark Krasiejów (ul. 1 Maja 10) – check current opening hours and ticket prices on the park's website before you go. Allow about 1–1.5 hours for the evolution journey itself and at least half a day for the whole complex with the dinosaur park and the palaeontological pavilion. Try to see the fossils, around 230 million years old, first and board the shuttle afterwards – the story then runs in chronological order.