Underground Tourist Route "Rzeszowskie Cellars"

Underground Tourist Route "Rzeszowskie Cellars" in Rzeszów - a complex of former urban cellars combined into a tourist route, located in Rzeszów, under the Old Town Market Square. The entrance to the underground is located at the Rzeszów Town Hall (ul. Słowackiego 26), and the exit - at Rynek 12 (from ul. Baldachówka). Currently, the route is managed by the Municipal Board of Residential Buildings in Rzeszów. The length of the route is 396 meters. The decision to create an underground tourist route was made in 1994, although the ideas for its creation date back to the 1980s. Earlier, in the 1960s and 1970s, security and conservation works were carried out in the Rzeszów cellars by specialists from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków. Mining works aimed at connecting the underground rooms began in 2000. In April 2001, the route was opened to the public. At that time, it was 213 meters long and led through 34 rooms (basements and corridors). At that time, the route started at Rynek 12, entrance from ul. Canopy (current exit), and ended - at Rynek 19, in the vicinity of the Polonia House. Its administrator was the District Museum in Rzeszów. In 2004, a decision was made to implement the second stage of construction of the underground route; this investment involved the reconstruction of the main plate of the Market Square. As a result of works carried out in 2005-2007, the route was extended by another 156 meters. It reopened in December 2007. Currently, the route consists of 40 interconnected rooms, located on three floors, at a depth of 0.5 to 10 meters below the surface of the Market Square. It consists of cellars from the period from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. It leads under the main plate of the Market Square and under the tenement houses No. 11, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21 and the currently non-existent 28 and 29. Cellars of the Bławatniks, Gruba Kochanowicz, Cellar of the Rzeszowskis, Trakt Lubomirski, Merchants Road, Honey Cellar and Tatar Dungeons - the narrowest place on the route (70 cm). A historical and educational exhibition has been arranged in the cellars, presenting e.g. replicas of knight's armour, melee weapons and firearms, old utilitarian ceramics and everyday objects, as well as - in the Coat of Arms - coats of arms of the former owners of the city, lands and provinces where it was located, and coats of arms of Rzeszów itself. #poland #polandtravel #rzeszow #museum