Wieliczka Salt Mine
There was every intention of packing to leave for Warsaw today, but when I heard of a local World Heritage Site only ten kilometers away the stay in Krakow was extended. The Wieliczka Salt Mine has been in operation for over 900 years, with tours bringing guests into vaults more than 150 meters underground.
Today I traveled with a Czech couple I met at the hostel. They are energetic travel companions but I couldn’t begin to be able to spell (or hardly pronounce) their names, so we slipped into the immediate intimacy of just plain skipping the formality of actually using first names. (Vaclav & Anezka)
The three of us caught the “local bus/van” from a stop across the street from the hostel and headed out of town. The driver stopped near a town and looked at us. That must have meant it was time to get out.
Thankfully, a young woman pointed up in the general direction of the mines, as we headed out the front door.
From across the valley, I spotted an elevator flywheel, so we made the collective assumption to head in its general direction. Under the huge mechanism was a ticket office, where we joined hundreds of people waiting for tours to begin. The mine receives over 2 million visitors a year, which equates to about 6,000 visitors a day (accounting for holidays).
To start the tour we walk down flights of wooded stairs. Looking down the central focal point vanishes into infinity as perspective closes in on the repeating field.
My “partners in crime” are all smiles as we go round and round in a seemingly endless counter clockwise spiral. Vaclav looks over to mean and says, “I think I am experiencing déjà vu.” We laugh to fight the growing dizziness.
Everyone was relieved when the spiraling stopped and we stepped out into the first chamber to greet a carved salt figure of Copernicus, who had visited the cave when he was a young man. Balancing the world in his hand, he looks more like an NBA player driving to the hoop than a world famous astronomer.
Many passage ways and side chambers are carved out of the salt base. There is little need for added stone material when you can simply carve a useful feature in relief during mine construction.
The legend of this mine dates back to the 1200’s, even though actual mining started earlier. In the legend, the Hungarian Princess Kinga was worried for her soon to be homeland because it had no valuable salt reserves. So she begged her father to give her a salt mine in Hungary for a wedding present. He agreed. She then went to the mine and threw her engagement ring down the shaft as a symbol of her new commitment to the Polish people. After moving to Warsaw she had a vision that there was salt to be found in the area and instructed miners to dig. They dug deep into the earth and found rich green bands of salt. While digging, one of the miners found her engagement ring inside a large chunk of salt and presented it back to her. The salt had followed her from Hungary to Poland to bless her new people. She is now, of course, the patron saint Polish salt miners.
There are two great dangers in mining salt. The first is methane gas pockets that accumulate as the gas escapes from the salt. So, specially trained miners with long poles, wrapped at the tip with smoldering straw, must clear chambers of methane each day, prior to the start of large-scale production.
The other danger is fresh water. This is actually the greater danger and takes the most effort to manage. Fresh water can cut through salt deposits, weakening the structural strength of caverns, causing mine collapse.
The mine was most profitable during the reign of King Kazimierza during the 14th century.
During this period the big evolution was shifting from mining blocks of salt to cylinders that slid across the mine floors with less friction.
They would then be lifted to the surface by a using horse drawn winching system.
Horses still lived underground in the mines until 2005, when under pressure from a PETA group the last horse was brought to the surface. What the PETA group didn’t know was that the salt environment is a natural antibiotic atmosphere, so the horses when exposed to bacterial rich wash of the surface air didn’t fair so well.
We continue to descend deeper into the mine, down wooden walkways.
The groups are large and often overlap.
We pass through several chapels, while continuing to drop deeper into the earth.
After making a right turn, the tunnel opens up into a cathedral sized cavern with carved staircase and walls. Two artisan brothers did the majority of the carving over a thirty-year period.
Wherever possible, the transparency of salt to light is utilized to greatest affect.
Everything is salt, ...
... including the carved tile floors.
On the way to the elevators we passed several historic figures who visited the mine at one point or another.
(Pope John Paul II)
(Johann Wolfgang van Goethe, the philosopher)
(Josef Pilsudski, the Founding Father of Poland)
On the way out there are several large dining rooms known to be the deepest underground restaurants in the world.
The last thrill of the mine was the 40 second ride up the old double-decker elevator or 125M at 40 mph.
Poland was on the cusp of a national election, so candidate posters littered the open spaces. We had to laugh at the characters pictured, because none of them looked congenial. This character was running on an anti-corruption platform, but he looked more like a mob inforcer than a reformer.
After returning to Krakow, Vaclav and Anezka crashed out, leaving me to wander the town and enjoy the sights.
Krakow is calm and comforting. A walk along the river banks as the sun was setting eased into evening.
The cold, crisp, evening must have cleared the city center of tourist crowds. With the low cloud deck the Bazilika towered into the night sky.
The crackling cold seemed to not only increase a sense of sound but also made the light appear to be more reflective in the stone benches near the main market.
Looking up at the town clock tower inspired a shivering speed walk back to the warmth and comfort of the hostel.
