Rzeszow Underground Route

Under the market square at Rzeszow is a system of cellars dug from the fifteenth century onwards by merchants storing goods on the trade routes east - wine, cloth, grain - cut into the loess on up to three levels and reaching about ten metres down. By the twentieth century they were causing subsidence in the square above, and the works to stabilise them from the 1970s to the 1990s connected a number of the chambers into a single walkable route of around three hundred and seventy metres through some fifteen cellars and twenty-five connecting passages. The tour covers the trading history, the construction, and the archaeological finds from the excavation. It is one of several such routes in Polish towns - Sandomierz, Opatow and Klodzko have their own - and the Rzeszow one is among the longest. The square above has a town hall of the sixteenth century, heavily rebuilt in the nineteenth.

What you actually see

• About 370 metres of route - through fifteen cellars and their connecting passages.
• Three levels down - reaching around ten metres below the square.
• Loess cutting - the soft ground the merchants dug into from the 1400s.
• Finds from the excavation - shown along the route with the trading history.

When to go

All year. Two hours.

Honest expectations

Guided tours on set departures, in Polish unless arranged. Passages are cool, narrow and low in places. Books up at weekends. Not suitable for anyone uneasy in enclosed spaces.

Nearby

Lancut palace is about twenty kilometres east.