A town built on salt
Salt has been extracted here since antiquity, and by the industrial era the town had begun to sink into its own workings. The first mining subsidence was recorded in 1907 and held the place back for decades. The „Solno” mine worked from 1928 to 1986 and closed because of the risk of flooding; extraction in the area ended in the 1980s.
The same geology gave the town a second life. Beneath Inowrocław lies brine — heavily mineralised water carrying sodium chloride, sulphate and chloride ions, along with iron, zinc, magnesium and calcium. In 1875 a group of local businessmen led by the physician Zygmunt Wilkoński formed a joint-stock company for the brine springs and began building a spa quarter. That is the year the spa dates from.
The buildings went up in stages: bath house from 1876, mud-bath building in 1924–1925, inhalatorium in 1928–1929. The whole treatment complex entered the register of monuments in 2016, so what you visit is not only a park but turn-of-the-century spa architecture still doing the job it was built for.
The Brine Park
The park was laid out in 1876 alongside the spa, on the initiative of Lucjan Grabski and to a design by the gardener Michał Budziński. It began as a one-hectare French garden around the first bath house. It now covers 85 hectares, which makes it one of the largest spa parks in Poland: over forty hectares were added in 1925, and another stretch to the south-west in 2012, with a pond and a scent garden.
The old eastern part is recognisable by its mature trees, the concert shell, the pump room and promenades lined with flower carpets, for which more than a hundred and ten thousand plants are bedded out each year. There is also the main pond, with illuminated fountains since 2006, and the Papal Gardens of 2008, modelled on the Vatican gardens and planted largely with conifers.
The park has also accumulated things no designer plans: a giant peacock that works as a sundial by the main entrance, a monument to Zygmunt Wilkoński, a bench with a figure of General Władysław Sikorski, sculptures called „Ziemowit” and „Three Graces”, and a large glacial boulder named „Edmund” that is protected as a natural monument.
The graduation tower, and what it does
The graduation tower stands in the west of the park and opened in 2001, after construction that began in 1994. It is built as two linked polygons, stands nine metres high and runs about three hundred metres, with a terrace along the top from which you can walk the whole circuit.
The principle is old and simple: brine trickles down walls packed with blackthorn brushwood, evaporating as it falls and leaving a salt aerosol in the surrounding air, close in composition to sea air. Visitors stand or stroll in it, usually for half an hour to an hour. Inhalation of this kind is used for upper respiratory conditions, allergies, emphysema and high blood pressure.
Two practical consequences. A fine film of salt settles on clothes and glasses nearby, which is normal and washes off. And the aerosol is strongest in still, warm weather — in frost the installation is switched off so it does not freeze. Beside the tower is a scent garden of roses, peonies, lilies and herbs, with a screen of trees towards the railway.
The town, getting there, and what to know
- Basilica of the Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary — a Romanesque church of the late twelfth century, burnt out in 1834 and known for decades simply as „the Ruin”; rebuilt in 1901–1902 and a minor basilica since 2008.
- The Smiling Madonna — a Gothic sculpture of about 1370–1380, the finest thing in the basilica.
- Pump room and palm house — mineral water tasted at source, with a palm house of 2013 next to it.
- By train — Inowrocław is a significant rail junction; the park is a quarter of an hour's walk from the station.
- By car — national roads 15 and 25 run through the town; Bydgoszcz and Toruń are each under an hour away.
- Time needed — half a day for the park and tower, a full day with the town.
How to get there and practical info
- Location
- Kujawy, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, near Bydgoszcz and Toruń
- What it is
- a statutory brine spa, operating since 1875
- Healing resources
- sodium-chloride brine and therapeutic mud
- Treated conditions
- upper respiratory tract, allergies, rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders, hypertension
- Spa park
- 85 ha; laid out 1876, extended 1925 and 2012
- Graduation tower
- opened 2001; two linked polygons, 9 m high, about 300 m long, terrace on top
- Heritage status
- the treatment complex on the register of monuments since 2016
- In town
- Basilica of the Name of the BVM, late twelfth century
- Time needed
- half a day to a full day
- Current opening times and tickets
- official city website of Inowrocław
When to go
The park wakes earlier than the countryside around it, because the beds are planted early, and the graduation tower usually restarts after its winter break. A good time for quiet walking.
Flower carpets at their fullest and the heaviest visitor numbers; the tower gets crowded on weekend afternoons. Mature trees in the eastern park give plenty of shade.
The best season for the inhalations themselves: still warm, less wind, fewer people. Autumn colour arrives unevenly, since the plantings date from different decades.
The tower is shut down in frost to protect the installation, so check before travelling. That leaves the park, the pump room and the basilica.
Other sights in Toruń
Straight-line distances from „Inowrocław spa" — calculated from real coordinates. By road it is often further.
Where to stay nearby
We are still building the list of verified properties in the Toruń region. If you run a guesthouse, a cottage or an apartment nearby — add your property.
Add your property →
