A seventeenth-century salt extraction shaft of the Wieliczka mine, backfilled in 1954, whose surviving masonry nadszybie building was renovated in 2010 and listed as a heritage structure.
Szyb Górsko is a seventeenth-century shaft of the Wieliczka Salt Mine, sunk during the reign of King Zygmunt III Waza and completed in approximately 1622. It reached a depth of around 177–183 metres across its operational life and was progressively deepened during the nineteenth century. The shaft belonged to the Stare Góry section of the mine and served as a salt extraction and transport shaft across more than three centuries.
It was backfilled in 1954 to a depth of approximately six metres below the surface. The masonry nadszybie building, which dates from 1896, survived closure and was entered in the heritage register in 1986. Subsidence caused structural damage to the building in 2002–2003, prompting grouting works completed in 2012.
The nadszybie was renovated in 2010 and the building is designated as part of the broader Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Szyb Górsko was sunk between approximately 1615 and 1622, during the reign of King Zygmunt III Waza. Historical sources suggest the shaft reached the depth of level I and was completed in approximately 1622. It formed part of the Stare Góry section of the mine, which also included Szyb Regis, Szyb Wodna Góra, and Szyb Seraf. The shaft served as a salt extraction and transport shaft, with its recorded depth at various points cited as 177 to 183 metres.
During the nineteenth century the shaft was progressively deepened. A wooden nadszybie with a masonry rotunda for the kierat was built at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This structure was demolished in 1862 and replaced by a smaller building, which was in turn rebuilt. In 1804 a house for mine officials was constructed adjacent to the nadszybie. The current masonry nadszybie building was erected in 1896.
In 1861, under the Austrian administration's reorganisation of the mine, the Stare Góry and Nowe Góry sections were merged and renamed Pole Wschodnie. Szyb Górsko continued in service through this administrative change.
The shaft was backfilled in 1954 to a depth of approximately six metres below the surface, closing its operational life after more than three centuries. The nadszybie building survived. It was entered in the heritage register in 1986.
In the years following closure, groundwater infiltration caused ongoing subsidence in the vicinity of the shaft at a recorded average rate of approximately 13 millimetres per year. At the turn of 2002 and 2003 the subsidence rate accelerated sharply, reaching approximately 350 millimetres per year and causing cracking of the nadszybie building. A technical project for grouting and sealing the shaft was prepared in February 2011. Eighty-three grouting boreholes to a depth of 18 metres and three monitoring boreholes were designed. Grouting works in four depth zones commenced in December 2011 and were completed in 2012, after which the subsidence rate returned to approximately 12 millimetres per year.
The nadszybie building was renovated in 2010, including structural steelwork and masonry repairs, and a Hotel Górsko with 28 guest rooms was opened alongside the site at the same time. The shaft and its surviving nadszybie form part of the Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978 and designated a Pomnik Historii in 1994.