Smok Chamber
The Smok Chamber features a kinesiotherapy room with physiotherapy equipment used during exercise sessions and a modern inhalation room.
The Health Resort provides pulmonological, laryngological and allergological services, both for adults and children. We specialise in the treatment of bronchial asthma of various aetiologies, COPD accompanied by bronchial dilatation and all recurrent, chronic diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract, with an allergic and inflammatory background. Our rich medical offer is complemented by rehabilitation of other accompanying ailments, such as voice emission disorders, chest wall and spine diseases and neuromuscular diseases.
The bioclimate of the treatment chambers is characterised by an exceptional bacteriological purity of the air, the absence of allergens and pollutants, a constant low temperature (13–14.5°C), high relative humidity (60–80%) and a high level of ionisation, in particular with chlorine and sodium ions, but also with magnesium and calcium ions. Additionally, the Health Resort is the only facility in Poland where treatment and rehabilitation of respiratory system is complemented with treatments based on natural brine from the local salt deposit, located at a depth of 255 m.
Currently, subterraneotherapy, apart from using the natural therapeutic resource of the underground salt chamber microclimate, is also based on active rehabilitation of the respiratory system under the supervision of a team of doctors and medical rehabilitation specialists. The main tools used in respiratory rehabilitation are breathing exercises, based on the teaching of proper breathing and exercises of respiratory muscles and diaphragm. Pro-health education is also important in order to achieve the intended rehabilitation goals.
The Smok Chamber features a kinesiotherapy room with physiotherapy equipment used during exercise sessions and a modern inhalation room.
The Boczkowski Chamber, which has unique aesthetic values as the only leaching chamber made available in the “Wieliczka” Salt Mine, has been arranged as a place for relaxation.
The main attraction of the chamber is a lake filled with natural Wieliczka brine. Around the lake there are separate places for group and individual exercises and relaxation.
The Eastern Mountain Stable Chamber has two zones – in the first one, patients relax and inhale at a graduation tower. The second is designed as accommodation for up 28 people. The chamber is equipped with exercise equipment.
Research on the beneficial influence of the salt underground microclimate on the functioning of the human respiratory system was first carried out by Dr Feliks Boczkowski. He noticed that Wieliczka miners were much less likely to develop lung diseases, a typical ailment of coal miners. It was on Boczkowski’s initiative that a bathing establishment was established in Wieliczka (1839), which offered saline baths, salt mud baths and inhalations.
The second figure important for the health resort of Wieliczka, was Dr Mieczysław Skulimowski. As a mine physician, he initiated treatment using the beneficial properties of the salt climate of the underground. In this way, he laid the foundations for a new method of treatment of respiratory diseases – subterraneotherapy. It was Dr Mieczysław Skulimowski who contributed to the establishment of the first underground sanatorium in Poland (the second in the world) in 1958.
Since 2011, by decision of the Minister of Health, the “Wieliczka” Salt Mine Health Resort is the only underground health resort in Poland. In addition to therapeutic programmes, it also offers recreational programmes, thus becoming a part of the spa tourism trend.