Graudation tower vol. 2

The history of the establishment of Ciechocinek’s graduation towers is related to the problem of salt shortage in the 18th century. After the partition of Poland, the salt mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia, which supplied the country with salt, became part of the Austrian partition. In 1791, therefore, the search for new deposits began. One of the sites was in the vicinity of Ciechocinek, the saline springs of which were already known in the Middle Ages. The work of the Poles was continued by the Prussians, including the well-known naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who confirmed the validity of using the springs existing between Słońsk and Raciążek.

The graduation towers were built between 1824 and 1859 as part of the technological process of salt production through the initiative of Konstanty Leon Wolicki, who in 1823 bought two voloks of land with saline springs from the landlord, Józef Zawadzki. A year later he ceded the rights to the salt lands to the government. He concluded contracts for the erection of buildings and equipment for the saltworks and the production of salt with the Government Revenue and Treasury Commission, represented by Minister Prince Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki.

The saltworks facilities in Ciechocinek were designed by Johann Jacob Graff, a specialist in the art of mining from Saxony, a professor at the Mining School in Kielce. In 1824, construction work began under the direction of Karl Knake. However, industrial-scale salt production did not begin until after the November Uprising on 21 October 1832. Its production was accompanied by the establishment of a spa, based on the therapeutic qualities of the brine's by-products: sludge and bath lye. The first baths were set up in 1836 in a local tavern, and the properties of the graduation tower as an inhalatorium were discovered in the second half of the 19th century.

Graduation tower No. 2 is the longest in the world, measuring 722.4 m. Its reservoir is divided into four segments. The date of completion – AD 1827 – is carved into a board at the end of the structure. The graduation tower has an observation deck on top and a brine grotto inside fed by Ciechocinek’s brine spring. It is a natural inhalatorium, the visitors of which can learn about the process of making Ciechocinek’s evaporated, pan salt.

Graduation tower No. 3 is the youngest, having been built in 1859. It is also the shortest, measuring 366.6 metres (the entire complex of three graduation towers is 1742.3 metres). Its reservoir is divided into two segments, as is that of the graduation tower No. 1. It differs slightly from the other two graduation towers in that the outer beams have been partially replaced with a foundation of broken granite fieldstones and bricks. It boosts the brine concentration process.

Near the graduation towers Nos. 1 and No. 3 lies an erratic stone with a plaque dedicated to Prof. J. J. Graff, unveiled in 2001. Also located along the walking path are: the wooden enclosure of water intake No. 17, a hydrophore plant, and a small brine reservoir, as well as a modernist swimming pool from 1932 designed by Romuald Gutt and engineer Aleksander Szniolis, currently in disrepair.

Within the Natura 2000 Site, to the right of the transverse embankment, is a saltmarsh reserve, established in 1954 and covering an area of 1.88 ha. Currently, the source of its salinity is brine infiltrating the soil during the operation of the graduation tower. The salty field houses, among others, marsh samphire, seaside arrowgrass, and seashore aster. Halophytes, i.e. salt-loving plants that usually grow by the sea, are a floristic peculiarity of the Ciechocinek area.