Welcome reception
On Thursday afternoon, after the last session, a welcome reception will be held in the conference center, at the same room as coffee breaks and lunches (Exhibition room, level +2).
Excursion
On Sunday we kindly invite you for an exciting visit in the Bochnia Salt Mine. The visit is offered in three unique variants: a touristic route with multimedia exhibition, a nature route across geological structures of the mine, and a historical route through old mine structures. Each route includes a boat trip across the 120 m long underground lake. In the end of the day, after the salt mine visit, we invite you for a barbecue party to end this day together. If for any kind of health issues you cannot go down to the mine, please contact organizers and we will help you organize equally exciting activities.
Excursion to Bochnia Salt Mine details
We would like to invite you to visit one of the oldest salt mines in the world, and the oldes on in Poland – Bochnia Salt Mine. It started it operation in 1248, nine years before Krakow was granted city rights, and ended only in 1990. It is located 30 km east of Kraków. During the trip you will learn about history of the salt mine and Bochnia town.
Buses will leave Auditorium Maximum UJ at 7:30 on Sunday.
Take into account that this is a visit to underground structures where conditions are sometimes difficult. More demanding routes - historical and natural, require appropriate hiking shoes. It is cold in the mine and there is high humidity. Consider your physical conditions when deciding which route to take. The mine offers a simplified tourist route for people for whom climbing many stairs and overcoming the difference in levels of 50-100 m would be too difficult. Please note that the conditions in the mine may change in the future and the tour plans will have to change.
Please choose one of the proposed routes.
Touristic Route with Underground Multimedia Exhibition
Unique salt chambers with a characteristic shape and geological layout, beautiful chapels carved in salt, salt sculptures as well as mining tools and equipment create a unique, amazing underground city. Tourists cover the route on foot, part of the route can be done by train* or by boat. The tour of the mine ends with a stay in the largest of the chambers called Ważyn, where the Ważyn restaurant, souvenir shop, sports field and playground for children are located.
An exceptional and unique attraction of the Bochnia mine is the Underground multimedia exhibition, which allows to promote the mine and general history in an unprecedented way. The mine tour is a journey through time, beginning in the times of Bolesław the Chaste and Princess Kinga. Guides in telling the history of the mine are helped by Polish kings, Genoese saltworks, as well as the spirit of the Cistercian monk, whose order is associated with the creation of the mine in Bochnia.
*Currently, due to train maintenace, access to the chamber and the boat is possible only via staircase with 700 stairs (first down, later up). Therefore persons who could not manage a such trip should choose a simplified route which skips the Ważyn chamber and the underground lake.
- The temperature in the mine is between 14 and 16°C, with relative humidity of 70%.
- During your stay under the ground, you will be accompanied by a guide.
- Admission to the route is only granted to adults and minors must be accompanied by an adult.
- It is reccomended to have warm clothes with you and comfortable shoes.
Natural Route
Tourists will be able to see the rocks and minerals that make up the deposit: northern, middle and southern salts, gypsum and anhydrites, including the world-famous Bochnia viscera - characteristically folded anhydrites, as well as a tufit insert (volcanic ash) which is a trace of former volcanic activity in the region. During the trip, you will be able to observe how human activity influenced the creation of a unique environment in salt excavations, characterized by clusters of salt infiltrates, efflorescences, cauliflowers, as well as how fluorescent halite came to be, what is the idea of fluorescence and why it is a very rare phenomenon. This will make it possible to realize how all the geological processes that formed the salt deposit millions of years ago, as well as modern phenomena, currently visible in mining excavations, created the natural beauty of the mine interior.
The tourist route leads through historic corridors from the Sienkiewicz level through the Lobkowicz level to the August level. The difference in levels (50 m) is overcome by the Lichtenfels Descent. The tour of the mine begins with a stay in the Ważyn chamber, then tourists go to Chamber 81. One of the biggest attractions of the Bochnia mine - the Underground Boat Crossing - is located here. Accompanied by raftsmen, tourists cover a distance of 120 m, sailing along the excavation flooded with brine. Tourists take the stairs from the Sienkiewicz level to the Lobkowicz level. The last part of the Descent from level V Lobkowicz to level IV August is located in the Lichtenfels VII Chamber, exploited in the 1780s. Then, tourists move along the August level visiting the Mysiur Stable and the Chapel of St.Kinga.
In addition to nature information, the route will also present the history of the excavations visited, including the Lichtenfels descent, which was used by horses working in the Mine.
- The temperature in the mine is between 14 and 16°C, with relative humidity of 70%.
- During your stay under the ground, you will be accompanied by a guide.
- Admission to the route is only granted to adults and minors must be accompanied by an adult.
- It is reccomended to have warm clothes with you and comfortable trecking shoes.
Historical Route The Old Mountains Expedition
Discover the oldest Bochnia mine workings, which have never before been made available to tourists, where rock salt was mined from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century.
Learn what the work of medieval miners looked like and what dangers it as associated with. See how a treasure of UNESCO world heritage was created through the hard work of human beings. You will begin the expedition along underground galleries at a depth of 70 meters, at the Danielowiec Level, and end up at the August IV Level 176 m underground.
During the tour, you will discover the oldest, raw, medieval excavations of the Bochnia mine. The route, which is nearly 3 km long, leads through narrow galleries and ladder sections. To walk the route, you will have to be in a very good physical condition, but you will be rewarded by the sights the beautiful raw rock formations which have been uncovered thanks to the work of the miners. Here, you will find geological expositions unlike any others in the world, which illustrate the structure of the Bochnia salt deposit.
It is the most demanding of all routes. Requre good physical (narrow corridors, 100 m uphill and downhil walking) and mental healt (narrow, claustrophobicc environment). Please choose this route carefully.
- Admission to the route is only granted to adults and groups of school students up to 16 years of age accompanied by an adult.
- Suitable clothing** and mountain hiking footwear are required.
- The temperature in the mine is between 14 and 16°C, with relative humidity of 70%.
- During your stay under the ground, you will be accompanied by a guide.
**Protective clothing is provided
Please take into account that depending on the selected route, the distance to walk may span between 2 and 4 km (the Underground Boat takes another 1 km extra to the routes).
Conference dinner
On Monday all participants are invited to the conference dinner, which will be held in the Trattoria Wawel restaurant.
More
It is possible to book individual one-day excursions to the salt mine Wieliczka or the World War II concentration camp of Auschwitz. The conference office will be ready to help you with the arrangements.
