Underground tourist route ‘Rzeszów cellars’

Medals available at the main entrance!

The idea to transform Rzeszów’s Old Town cellars into a tourist attraction dates back to the 1980s. However, it wasn’t until 1994 that the decision was made to connect the cellars and excavations around the Market Square (which had survived the previous “reinforcement” with concrete) into an underground route. It was decided to create it under the eastern part of the Market Square, with an entrance at Rynek 12 in the southern frontage and an exit in the northern frontage, near the Dom Polonii (Rynek 19).

At the beginning of 2000, mining works began to dig an underground corridor connecting the cellars under Rynek 14 with the Rzeszów Cellar near Rynek 19. This newly created excavation was named the Lubomirski Corridor. The corridor was made by uncovering a fragment of former cellars near building no. 15, which had been filled with chemical backfill during previous works. The mining and construction works were carried out by the Rzeszów company Zelbud.

The corner building at Rynek 12, intended as the entrance to the underground, was renovated. This entrance was located from the side of Baldachówka Street leading to the Market Square. At the exit in the Rzeszów Cellar, a fragment of a 16th-century tenement house with a sandstone entrance and window was exposed. Part of the cellars under buildings no. 11, 12, 13 and 14, which were municipal property and unused at that time, were included in the route.

In the underground, excavations from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were secured, and a fragment of a wall under the former Rynek 28 tenement with traces of a fire, presumably from June 1842, was exposed. Tourists can also see replicas of knight’s armor, the decor of an old shop, display cases with exhibits found during the excavations (alcohol bottles, old nails, or a door knocker). The inauguration of the extended Underground Tourist Route took place on December 14, 2007.