Owl Hostel
Its highest popularity is mostly due to a famous salt mine situated within this area. The Salt Mine has been functioning continuously since the Medieval Times, which makes it the only object in the world operating for such a long
time ...
Wieliczka is a town (2006 population: 18,849) in southern Poland in the Kraków metropolitan area, and situated (since 1999) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, previously (1975-1998) in Kraków Voivodeship. The town was founded in 1290 by Duke Premislas II of Poland. Located under the town of Wieliczka is one of the world's oldest operating salt mines (the oldest is at Bochnia, Poland, 20 kilometers from Wieliczka), which has been worked since prehistoric times. The mine is also notable for a long tradition of tourism: the famous, breath-taking site has been visited over the centuries by Nicolaus Copernicus, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt, Dmitri Mendeleev, Bolesław Prus, Ignacy Paderewski, Robert Baden-Powell, Jacob Bronowski (who filmed segments of The Ascent of Man in the mine), Karol Wojtyła (the later Pope John Paul II), former U.S. President Bill Clinton, crowned heads, as well as hosts of ordinary people.
