Salt to replace Wieliczka
Salt was worked in this area as early as the thirteenth century — at nearby Słońsk, Duke Konrad I of Masovia kept salt pans, first mentioned in 1235. The real start of Ciechocinek came later and for a very practical reason: after the First Partition of Poland the mines at Wieliczka and Bochnia passed to Austria, so the Kingdom went looking for brine of its own. The richest source turned out to be here.
A salt act of 5 March 1791 provided for a saltworks, but the years that followed made it impossible. The project was taken up again in the 1820s. In 1823 Józef Zawadzki sold two hides of land with the brine springs to Konstanty Wolicki, who passed the property to the Kingdom's treasury without payment and undertook to build the works at the treasury's expense. Stanisław Staszic and Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki stood behind the undertaking.
Towers I and II went up in the 1820s, tower III in 1859, and the saltworks was finished in 1830. The designer was Professor Jakub Graff. The first record of the springs' healing effect dates from 1828–1829, when Drucki-Lubecki's children and the family of Ludwik Plater bathed here. The spa, in other words, grew out of an industrial plant.
How a graduation tower works
The towers stand in the north of the town on a sandy rise, out of reach of Vistula floods, with their long axes set across the prevailing winds. Tower I is 648 metres long, tower II 719 metres, tower III 333 metres. Together they form a horseshoe of more than 1700 metres.
Beneath them sit some seven thousand oak piles carrying a trough nine metres wide and a metre deep. Above that rises a spruce and pine frame packed with blackthorn brushwood. Brine of about six per cent is drawn from spring number eleven — known as the Mushroom Fountain — from over four hundred metres down, pumped to the crown and allowed to trickle evenly through the brushwood into the trough.
On the way part of the water evaporates in the wind and sun, producing a fine mist rich in iodine, sodium, chlorine and bromine: a natural inhalatorium where a walk takes the place of a treatment. For the saltworks what matters is different. The towers are the second stage of salt production and raise the concentration of the brine, from around nine per cent at tower I through sixteen at tower III to thirty at tower II, from where pipes carry it to the evaporating house.
The towers and saltworks together with the spa parks were recognised as a historic monument in 2017. Inside the evaporating house and store, the works' own monorail suspension railway of 1905 survives, used to move salt to the drying floors and the warehouse.
The spa park, salt-marsh plants and what is treated
The spa park was laid out in 1872–1875 in landscape style; its designer and planter was Hipolit Cybulski. It holds species not otherwise seen in Kuyavia: Kentucky coffeetree, Amur cork tree, ginkgo. The whole spa quarter is planted through anyway — parks, greens, flowerbeds and the flower carpets for which the town is known.
By tower III lies something much rarer: a botanical reserve protecting salt-marsh vegetation, established in 1963 on just under two hectares. Glasswort, sea milkwort and sea aster grow here — coastal plants living off the salted ground around the towers. To protect the town's particular microclimate, a protected landscape area of over thirty-eight thousand hectares was marked out around it.
Treatment rests on sodium chloride, bromide, iodide and ferrous waters from the many brine springs, and on healing mud. Conditions treated include disorders of the locomotor system, rheumatic and post-trauma orthopaedic complaints, gynaecological conditions, and diseases of the respiratory, nervous and circulatory systems. There is essentially no industry in Ciechocinek — the town lives off patients and visitors, with more than a dozen spa facilities working side by side.
Getting there
- By car — a little over twenty kilometres west of Toruń along the left bank of the Vistula; a little further from Włocławek, on the other bank.
- By train — the nearest major junction is Aleksandrów Kujawski; Ciechocinek has had a rail connection since 1867.
- By bus — regular services from Toruń, Aleksandrów Kujawski and Włocławek.
- On foot — a quarter of an hour from the spa park to the towers, about an hour to walk the whole horseshoe.
Worth knowing
The best time to be at the towers is when the wind blows: it carries the brine mist far further than still air, and the mist is what people come for. Walking the full horseshoe is a proper outing, so wear comfortable shoes.
Ciechocinek is small and can be done in a day, but that costs you the thing it does best, which is slowness. With time to spare, spread the towers, the park and the saltworks over two days.
Toruń and Inowrocław are both close and easy to add on. Ciechocinek shares its brine with Inowrocław, in fact — only the graduation tower there is a century younger.
How to get there and practical info
- Location
- Kuyavia, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Aleksandrów Kujawski county; Toruń Basin, left bank of the Vistula
- What it is
- a statutory brine spa; the healing use of the springs is recorded from 1828
- Healing resources
- sodium chloride, bromide, iodide and ferrous waters, and healing mud
- Conditions treated
- locomotor system, rheumatic, orthopaedic and post-trauma, gynaecological, respiratory, nervous and circulatory
- Graduation towers
- three, set in a horseshoe: 648, 719 and 333 metres; over 1700 metres in all, the largest such wooden structure in Europe
- When built
- towers I and II in the 1820s, tower III in 1859, designed by Professor Jakub Graff; saltworks completed 1830
- Spa park
- laid out 1872–1875 in landscape style to a design by Hipolit Cybulski
- Nature reserve
- salt-marsh vegetation by tower III, protected since 1963 on just under two hectares
- Heritage status
- historic monument — the graduation towers and saltworks with the spa parks, since 2017
- Time needed
- half a day for the towers, a full day with the spa park and the town
- Current opening times and tickets
- official website of the town of Ciechocinek
When to go
The spa park wakes early and is at its emptiest. The towers are already running normally, and the bedding displays begin in May.
The busiest season for patients and visitors, and the brine mist is most noticeable in the heat. The salt-marsh plants by tower III flower in July and August.
The flower carpets last well into the season and the light on the timber frames is the best of the year. A good time for an unhurried visit.
The towers are at their quietest and least effective now, as the cold slows evaporation. Treatment indoors runs all year round.
Other sights in Toruń
Straight-line distances from „Ciechocinek — spa town" — calculated from real coordinates. By road it is often further.
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