During a two-week run from the end of May into June, students from Fountain Hills High School participated in an inspirational and educational trip to Poland.

They traveled to several well-known and historical places, with an ultimate destination of Fountain Hills’ Sister City, Zamość, Poland.

The students’ immersion into the culture, history, cuisine, education and lifestyle of their Polish counterparts represented a spectacular manifestation of one of the basic principles of the Sister Cities movement, according to a press release.

They shared friendships and goodwill with an international partner city that transcended direct government involvement, which is a mutually beneficial and foundational pillar identified by Sister Cities founder, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, back in 1956.

The trip began and ended in Zamość

The students were accompanied by Fountain Hills High School teachers Luke Salzman and Chris Peterson, who are also members of the FH Sister Cities Team.

The chaperones this year included Fountain Hills Union High School teacher Olivia Long and District Superintendent Dr. Cain Jagodzinski and his wife Tamara. Together, they all experienced the best of Zamość.

Fountain Hills High School exchange students, teachers and chaperones interacted and lived among the local Polish students and educators who had previously visited Fountain Hills last fall.

They had the chance to explore the ever-popular Kraków, one of the oldest cities in Poland and is known for being one of the leading centers for Polish academic, cultural and artistic life, the release said.

Students visited the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków, which is part of a fortified architectural complex erected atop a limestone outcrop on the left bank of the Vistula River.

The complex consists of numerous buildings of great historical and national importance, including the Wawel Cathedral, where Polish monarchs were crowned and buried. Some of Wawel’s oldest stone buildings can be traced back to 970 CE, in addition to the earliest examples of Romanesque and Gothic architecture in Poland.

Students then embarked on a unique adventure exploring the nearby salt mine at Wieliczka. It is one of the oldest documented salt-manufacturing sites in Europe. Though salt had been produced from brine springs since Neolithic times, rock salt was first discovered in Wieliczka in the 13th century, when the first shafts were dug, and it was mined continuously from then until 1996.

Auschwitz was a must-see

The exchange students experienced first-hand the somber history and the haunting memories of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp of WWII.

They learned Auschwitz was the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers where over 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives.

The student exchange team explored Warsaw in the last few days of their trip. Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland and the sixth most populous city in the European Union. Warsaw is a major political, economic and cultural hub, and the country’s seat of government.

With the completion of the students’ travel to Poland, and specifically Zamość, so too ended another Polish Student Exchange experience. Participants left Poland with a newfound appreciation of the meaning, purpose and rewards of the Sister Cities program and came home with a lifetime of incredible memories and endearing friendships, the press release said.

According to the release, the experience also strengthens the bonds between the two communities and reinforces the mutual commitments as Sister Cities, a partnership that has endured since its founding in 2014.

For more information about Fountain Hills Sister Cities and to view a gallery of the trip to Poland, visit fountainhillssistercities.org.