POLAND: THE WIELICZKA SALT MINE

The Wieliczka Salt Mine lies about 50 miles east of Auschwitz, on the other side of Krakow.  It’s ambitious to do both Auschwitz and the salt mines in a single day, but Bob thought we were up for it. (Of course he did.)

It was a beautiful drive through what looked like mostly farmland:

One of the oldest mines in the world, Wieliczka was first excavated as early as the 13^th century and was a producing salt mine until 1996. My guess is that it makes as much money from the tourist industry these days as it used to earn from salt mining. In peak summer months, as many as 9,000 tourists/day pay the entrance fee to go down into the caves, and about a million people visit the site each year. At about $23/ticket, it’s not cheap, although it is a little cheaper for Poles and Polish speakers, and there is also a family rate.

We began our tour in this large building, which is the mine entrance and once housed offices. That tower, called a "headframe," is an above-ground extension of the main mine shaft and houses a massive pulley:

The mine is spread over nine levels, is over 1,070 feet deep, and has more than 170 miles of labyrinthine passageways and hundreds of chambers. I would not want to be inside with no lights and no guide, that’s for sure.

During World War II, occupying Germans transported several thousand Jews from surrounding labor camps to work in the mine, primarily to manufacture aircraft parts. I guess it would have been pretty safe there during air raids, right?

One of the big things about the Wieliczka Salt Mine was that it was included in the very first UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978, along with the nearby Krakow City Center and a mere ten other sites from around the world. One factor cited in this choice is that Wieliczka is the ONLY mining facility continuously active for 700 years, and as such it presents a unique record of mining technology, culture, beliefs, and customs throughout the years.

Here is a short video put out by World Heritage Journeys:

Of course, before we went down to our doom, we needed a final last meal. This is the uniquely Polish style of soft serve ice cream, which we found (and enjoyed) just about everywhere we went:

 Then down the stairs we went to the entrance of the mine:

Not a good tour if you have knee problems:

Seriously, do the stairs ever end?

We were in the Danilowicz Shaft, excavated in 1635-1642 and part of Level III:

We paused at the first of what would be many chambers illustrating mining techniques and lifestyle:

The deeper we went, the newer the excavations, although I wouldn't call this "new," would you?

Note the veins of salt in the rock behind Bob:

Our next stop was the Nicolai Copernicus chamber, carved out sometime before 1785:

What does Copernicus have to do with the Wieliczka Salt Mine? He was one of the early tourists here! (So how long until I get my likeness carved in salt and placed in a chamber?)

Salt was everywhere--the walls, the ceilings, even on some of the floors:

Many dioramas illustrated the mining process through the years. It was interesting to see how much horses were used to haul the mined salt, beginning with the Neolithic era 6,000 years ago:

. . . and moving gradually forward to modern times:

Up to 100 horses were used in the mines. Sometimes they spent their entire lives underground, but they were treated like royalty:

Salt crystals cling to every damp surface:

Through the years, superstitions abounded, including stories about the presence of mine gnomes:

Here are gnomes at work. I wonder if they were like the elves who helped out the shoemaker by making shoes while he slept?

In the Janowice Chamber, life-sized salt sculptures represent a Polish legend about a Hungarian woman, Princess Kinga (1234-1292), who was married off to a Polish prince and received a Hungarian salt mine as part of her dowry. For some reason she threw her engagement ring into the mine, and somehow that ring magically traveled to Wieliczka. The princess ordered workers to dig in a specific place, and in the first block of salt, they found her ring. After that, salt was plentiful in the mine, and eventually Kinga was made a saint by the Catholic church and became the patron saint of salt mine workers.

King Casimir III the Great, who reigned from 1333 to 1370, is a major figure in Polish history, known for his economic and social reforms. He made major contributions to the development of the mine, including founding a hospital nearby for the care of miners. There is a chamber dedicated to him:

Down, down, down . . . I was starting to dread the return trip:

The Wieliczka miners lived in the constant presence of death and in general were a religious lot. Over the years, they constructed many chapels in their underground world. The first one we saw, the Chapel of the Holy Cross, was created in gratitude for a miraculous rescue when the mine had a dangerous water leak in the mid-19th century. The statues, however, date to about 200 years before that. This chapel is a small room carved into the wall off one of the main passages. I can see how it would be a place of comfort for the miners:

The largest, most elaborate chapel in the mine is located 330 feet underground--the Chapel of St. Kinga (she of the magical ring). It is a full-fledged church, complete with 36-foot-tall soaring ceilings and 5,000 square feet of floor space. Local leaders hold regular mass here, and musical or stage performances are also held here. Understandably, this chapel has earned the nickname of "the underground salt cathedral." We entered the chapel by walking down a grand staircase:

There are dozens of works of art carved into the rock salt walls, many of them depicting scenes from the life of Christ.

The nativity:

The massacre of the innocents by Herod the Great:

The Holy Family's flight to Egypt:

Jesus teaches in the temple:

The miracle at the wedding of Cana:

The Last Supper (a blatant copy of Da Vinci's version):

Via Dolorosa, or the Way of the Cross:

The crucifixion:

The resurrected Jesus appearing to his disciples:

Within the larger chapel, there are several small chapels dedicated to Mary and other saints:

One of my favorite sculptures was of this miner with his handlebar mustache:

Of course there is a statue of Pope John Paul II, the Polish pope, who visited here twice as a teenager and once as a cardinal (though never as Pope). This statue was placed here after he canonized Kinga in 1999.

Two of the beautiful chandeliers are made completely out of salt crystals:

Off to see new caverns via tunnels that have undergone substantial upgrades to accommodate tourists. Wieliczka has the longest horizontal shaft of any mine in the world. I think this is it, but I'm not sure:

Check out this underground lake. They say the salinity is close to that of the Dead Sea:

The Stanislaw Staszic Chamber is the tallest room in the mine, soaring a lofty 118 feet. It was excavated in the first half of the 19th century. Supposedly this has been the site of some extreme sports, including bungee jumping and the first underground balloon flight. Uh, no thank you.

This huge chamber is home to the mine's gift shop, which sells lots of salt-related products and some beautiful amber jewelry, Poland's specialty.

An imposing UNESCO World Heritage medallion is caved into the rock, displaying the first twelve sites to be chosen for this designation.

These sites include:
Poland: Krakow's Historic Center; Wieliczka Salt Mine
Ethiopia: Simien National Park; Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela
Germany: Aachen Cathedral
Senegal: Island of Goree
USA: Mesa Verde National Park; Yellowstone National Park
Canada: L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site; Nahanni National Park
Ecuador:Galapagos Islands; City of Quito

If you have a hankering to spend the night 425 feet underground, you might want to reserve a room in the Juliusz Slowacki Chamber, a very upscale little establishment. Sleeping underground is supposed to be very healthy, especially for those with respiratory issues, as there are no bacteria, fungi, pollens, or other allergens this far underground.

We visited one last chapel, St. John's Chapel, built in 1859. I thought it was the most beautiful spot in the mine. It can hold up to 40 people and is a popular wedding spot.

After all those stairs, the BIG relief was that we did not have to climb the stairs to get out.  They have a pretty efficient elevator system that took us to the top. Whew.

We came out in a different place than where we went in, so we had to hike back to the parking lot, passing St. Clement's Church on the way, built in the 1800s on the foundation of the original 13th century church:

. . . via Jana Pawla II (John Paul II) Street:

. . . and past the good Pope himself. Really, he is everywhere: