Cracow Salt Mine Museum

Cracow Salt Mine Museum

is one of the biggest mining museums in Europe, being one of the 17 museums of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. It has two permanent exhibitions: the underground one is located on the third level of the historic Salt Mine in Wieliczka (depth. 135m). The second exhibition is located in the Saltworks medieval castle which was the headquarters of the salt industry from the end of the thirteenth century to 1945, when it was renovated for the museum's needs, as the heirs of the historical tradition of the wielicko-bocheńskich mines. The institution's mission is to protect and popularize the rich history of salt mining in Poland, which is perceived as a lasting legacy of humanity. The idea of rescuing the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a monument of nature and the work of Polish miners, was made by Alfons Dlugosz - an artist and professor at Wieliczka secondary school. Collected over many years, the collections include mining equipment and tools, discovered as a result of penetration work conducted in the old excavations. This has allowed the museum to have the world's only complete collection of ancient wooden lifting machines, which are the ancestors of steam and electric machines. In addition, a valuable collection of mining maps have been transferred to the museum archives and library.