Ciechocinek Graduation Towers
Wooden walls nearly two kilometres long packed with blackthorn twigs, over which brine trickles to make salt air.
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The teznie at Ciechocinek are three linked wooden structures built between 1824 and 1859, with a combined length of about 1,741 metres and a height of some fifteen metres, and they are the largest of their kind in Europe. The principle is old: brine is pumped to the top and allowed to trickle down through a dense packing of blackthorn twigs, so that water evaporates and the salt concentrates, originally as a step in salt production. What made them a health attraction is the side effect - the air around them carries a fine saline aerosol with iodine and other minerals, and walking in it is used for respiratory conditions, so people stroll and sit in the strip beside them for the air rather than any procedure. There is a walkway along the top of one section. The town around is a nineteenth-century spa with a pump room, flower carpets and a large park.
What you actually see
- 1,741 metres of graduation tower - the largest in Europe, built 1824-1859.
- Blackthorn packing - brine trickling through twigs to concentrate the salt.
- Saline air - the aerosol people come to breathe, along the strip beside them.
- A walkway on top - a raised route along one section.
When to go
May to September. Half a day.
Honest expectations
The towers close for maintenance sections at a time. Salt spray marks clothes and glasses. The walkway is ticketed separately. The town is a working spa and busiest with treatment patients rather than tourists.
Nearby
Torun is twenty kilometres south-east; the Vistula runs alongside.
What to pack for Ciechocinek Graduation Towers
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.