The undergrounds of Lower Silesian fortresses and castles, the corridors of now-defunct mines, which in the mountainous parts of the region were drilled into the slopes in search of deposits of various kinds of ores and natural resources, still hide many a mystery and unsolved riddle. Among other things, this is why a trip along the Mysterious Underground Route, covering some of the most interesting and frequently visited locations in the province, is an amazing journey not only into the depths of the Lower Silesian land, but above all – the local, sometimes extremely dramatic and tragic, history. What points can be found on the map of the Lower Silesian underground?

Two important Prussian-era fortified strongholds – in Klodzko and Srebrna Góra – were part of the line of fortifications that were built in Lower Silesia occupied by the armies of Frederick the Great in the 18th century. Although the history of Kłodzko fortifications dates back to at least the 16th century, it was the reconstruction of the fortress carried out under Prussian rule that gave it the shape we know today. The underground accessible to tourists includes both the tunnels drilled under the fortress, whose length reaches about a kilometer, as well as the corridors under Kłodzko’s old town, once used by the townspeople for storage, trade and, if necessary, defense purposes, but today forming an extremely interesting Underground Tourist Route. In turn, in the fortress in Srebrna Góra, one of the most modern in 18th-century Europe, built from scratch on the orders of the Prussian king, with a powerful and awe-inspiring Donjon, you can visit, in addition to the courtyard, the fort’s crown and vantage points, among other casemates located underground.

Looking for more attractions on the trail, this time in the Owl Mountains, we will come across, among other things, a network of underground tunnels, corridors and bunkers dating from 1943-1945, which were created here in the last years and months of the war on Adolf Hitler’s orders. The huge complex of strategic importance to the German command staff, drilled deep underground as part of the implementation of the mysterious project codenamed “Riese,” was not fully completed, some of the corridors and rooms were deliberately destroyed just before the end of the war, but after many years of research and exploration of areas in the Owl Mountains, it was possible to discover some of its parts. The Walim drifts – the “Rzeczka” complex, formed by three corridors interconnected by transverse halls, about 500 meters long, is one of the three locations made available to tourists. Two more rooms or tunnels, separated by collapses, remain inaccessible to this day. The second important point on the map is the Osowka Underground City in Głuszyca, where visitors to the site have about 1,500 meters of tunnels, halls, bunkers and pits to go through. No less enigmatic and mysterious will turn out to be the tunnels and corridors under the Książ Castle, also built as part of the “Riese” project. If it is not known whether the undergrounds built in the Owl Mountains were actually intended to serve as a hiding place for German scientists working on “miracle weapons,” in the case of the Walbrzych undergrounds we can assume that their enormous size was dictated by the desire to turn the Castle into Hitler’s command headquarters, which entailed moving the entire military staff to this place.

The Mysterious Underground Route also includes old mines adapted for visiting, which themselves are a testimony to the mining traditions of the region, dating back many centuries. This is the case, for example, with the Old Uranium Mine in Kletno, a remnant of the robbery and extremely dangerous mining of this radioactive resource in the years 1948-1953 (some of the passages were already used by miners in the Middle Ages to search for iron and silver, among other things). Sections of adit No. 18, which are open to tourists and in which one can see beautiful mineral occurrences (fluorite, quartz, amethyst), are now fully safe. The Gold Mine in Zloty Stok boasts an even richer tradition, the first mention of which appears in sources almost 800 years ago – a contemporary tour includes passing through a fragment of the Gertrude Adit, a treasury showing the amount of gold mined in the mine, the so-called sidewalk of death, as well as the Museum of Cautions, Remarks and Appeals. The map of points on the Mysterious Underground Trail is supplemented by two more equally fascinating places – the Old Mine, the Center for Science, Culture and Art in Walbrzych, the largest post-industrial facility of its kind in Poland, which was built in the “Julia” Coal Mine, which has been closed for years, and the St. John Mine in Krobica , operating in the spaces of the former St. John’s mine, which for several centuries was the workplace of miners extracting tin and cobalt, among other things.

The underground under Kosciuszko Hill hides a unique attraction – a 1,500-meter-long multimedia tourist route known as the Time Gates. In the corridors carved into the rock, which served as shelters during World War II, interactive exhibitions have been created to take visitors back to different eras – from prehistoric times, through the Middle Ages, to the 20th century. It’s an unusual combination of history, science and modern technology that allows you to truly travel back in time.

The Project Arado underground tourist route was created in a former air raid shelter, which directly connected to the design office, of the German company Arado Fluegzeukwerek GmbH. A company that was involved in the design and manufacture of jet-powered aircraft. It was this company that was responsible for innovative designs such as the Arado Ar 234, or the legendary Arado E555! Why did German planners choose Stone Mountain? What secret does the underground city hide from us? Did Kamienna Gora work on weapons that could change the course of World War II? Come and discover Hitler’s last secret!