Tężnie w Polsce. Geneza, stan i przyszłość zjawiska
Graduation towers in Poland. Genesis, current state and future of the phenomenon

Summary/Abstract: Salt is one of the materials with many uses. For centuries, its therapeutic values have been emphasized. Former salt mining centres, in which graduation towers were used to concentrate brine, played a special role. Along with changes in the technology of obtaining salt, these devices were gradually withdrawn from the use. Some of them began to perform a spa function, which resulted from the impact of the specific microclimate around them on treatment options, including upper respiratory tract diseases. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, a great interest in the graduation towers was noted, due to which new facilities began to be built, and adapted to perform the therapeutic function. The literature on the subject is basically limited to analyses of the individual historical objects in terms of history and technology as well as popular-scientific guidebooks and informational studies. The purpose of this study is to give an idea of the genesis and current state of the construction of external graduation towers in Poland (89 facilities have been inventoried), taking into account the dynamics of this state, and the diversity of graduation towers due to its form, size and method of funding. Particular attention was paid to the spatial diversity of this phenomenon.

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