Krakow Saltworks Museum

The Great Kracow Saltworks Museum has been collecting saltshakers, lately focusing mostly on expensive and one-of-a-kind items. There are saltshakers made of porcelain, gold, silver, tin, glass, wood, fused quartz, bone, crystal, and mother-of-pearl among other materials. The museum now includes 1000 artifacts that date back to the 14th century. There are single saltshakers, sets for spices, and saltshakers made from dinnerware in a highly diversified variety. The most expensive salt shakers were purchased during the Maastricht TEFAF international art exhibition.

The Mining Techniques collection includes 1508 items and some great work of vintage hoisting machines, or "treadmills," the only one of its sorts in all of Europe. Pulled by horses, including "Saxon" and "Hungarian" treadmills with vertical rope drums from the first and second halves of the nineteenth century. Machinery for mechanically exploiting salt deposits, illumination, ventilation, and equipment for mine drainage and brine transport are all included in the Mining Technology collection.

The Great Cracow Saltworks Museum started to gather geological samples for the current collection Before the Museum's launch. The collection of artifacts substantially surpasses 1000 pieces, according to the current inventory. The collection mostly comprises rocks from the Miocene Podkarpacie and cechsztyn central Polish salt deposits. Unique specimens from Machów serve as a representation of the defunct sulfur basin, while examples from the nearby gypsum basin originate from the Nida valley. The specimens from overseas research facilities in Romania, Belarus, Ethiopia, etc. should also be mentioned.

The Art & Ethnography collection includes paintings, sculptures, graphics, numismatics, and artistic and folk crafts. The collection also showcases items connected to mining history and culture that were gathered through the mining inventory. Old religious artifacts, such as crucifixes, Christ, and of the Virgin Mary statue, the patron saints of miners, stand out among them. In the center is the Wieliczka miner's horn, which serves as a symbol of the richness of the old Polish saltworks.

This collection includes the maps and plans which are concerned the Wieliczka salt mine from the 17 to the 20th century. One little portion is related to the mine in Bochnia. Unique versions depict silver works in Příbram, sulfur works in Swoszowice, and salt mines in Lack and Maramureş. The blueprints for the city and floors of the Wieliczka mine engraved by Wilhelm Hondius concerning maps by Marcin German dated 1631 are among the most valuable possessions.

Awit Szubert, who took the earliest images of the Wieliczka mine in 1892, Stanislaw Mucha, Jan Czernecki, Henryk Poddbski, Wadysaw Gargul and Alfons Dugosz are among the photographers with works in the museum's collection. The images depict not just the Wieliczka Salt Mine and Bochnia but also the city's previous structures, residents, and political and cultural activities. You can find some great photos by Michal Grochal, Alfons Dlugosz, Awit Szubert and many others in this collection.