Bochnia

Bochnia is a metropolis of 30,000 inhabitants at the river Raba in southern Poland. The city lies approximately in halfway 38 kilometers among Tarnow and the regional capital Krakow. Bochnia is most cited for its salt mine, the oldest functioning in Europe, built c. 1248. Since Poland's administrative reorganization in 1999, Bochnia has been the executive capital of Bochnia County in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Before reorganization it turned into part of Tarnow Voivodeship. The region of Bochnia as for 2002 is 29.89 rectangular kilometers. The metropolis is positioned alongside countrywide roads 94 and 75.

The A4 motorway European course E40 additionally passes to the north of the town. Bochnia is one of the oldest towns of Lesser Poland. The first known source bringing up the metropolis is a letter of 1198, wherein Aymar the Monk, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, showed a donation by using the local rich person Mikora Gryfit to the monastery of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in Miechow. The discovery of important deposits of rock salt at the web site of the present mines in 1248 caused the provider of metropolis privileges on 27 February 1253 by Boleslaw V the Chaste.