13 A world record for underground ballooning was recorded in 2000 in the mine
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In 2000, a world record attempt for underground ballooning took place in the Stanisaw Staszic chamber, one of the caverns. Krzysztof Rekas, a balloonist, was able to float 7 feet above the floor of a cave 410 feet underground. Stanisaw Staszic chamber is one of the biggest rooms in the mine. The site said he didn’t have to fly very high to break the record. All he had to do was get off the ground. The Guinness Book of Records says that Austrian balloonist Ivan Trifonov beat Rekas’s record in 2014 when he sailed his balloon 675 feet deep into a cave in Croatia.
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14 Salt sculptures are still being created in Wieliczka
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Wieliczka is still making salt sculptures. During the Euro 2012 soccer tournament, the Italian national team stayed in Wieliczka. As a gift to the players, modern sculptors were asked to make a salt sculpture for them. Salt was used to make soccer balls and boots for each player.
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15 Many officials have visited the Wieliczka mines
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There have been many important people at the mines. When Prince Edward of the United Kingdom and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, went to Poland in 2004, they were shown around by the Polish people.
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16 There have also been important political meetings at the mine
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Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland at the time, had also invited the leaders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary to a meeting hosted in the magnificent salt mine. Tusk showed how proud his country is of the salt mine by inviting other members of the Visegrád Group to meet there. The Visegrád Group, or V4, is an alliance of four Eastern European countries. At the time, it was led by Tusk, Jan Fischer of the Czech Republic, Gordon Bajnai of Hungary, and Robert Fico of Slovakia. Tusk was later elected president of the European Council, a position he held from 2014 to 2019.
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