Krakow Travel

The tradition of producing salt in the area of Wieliczka was born around 5000 years ago when Neolithic people living there obtained salt thanks to the procedure of boiling salines since the salt springs were in the proximity of the earth surface. Those surface springs probably ended in the XII century and people living in the nearby decided to construct wells to draw up brine and probably led to discover rock salt. The first ever constructed shaft named Goryszewski was constructed in the second half of the XIII century.
Wieliczka Salt Mines Tour details

The legend instead says about a beautiful and young daughter of the Hungarian king known as Bela IV whose name was Kinga or Kunegunda. Since in that period there were parents who took a decision about the marriage and marriage meant connections, money and power, it was decided Kinga would be given as a wife to the Polish prince Boleslao who ruled in Krakow. The girl before leaving towards her future patria asked her father not for gold or silver but for salt - she got to know Poland was a rich country but unfortunately there were no salt mines there. Her father wanting to fulfill the wish of his beloved daughter gifted her with a salt mines in Maramaros and the girl traveling to Krakow stopped to see her dowry.
It is said she threw her engagement ring to a shaft and left Hungary forever…
When Kinga arrived to Wieliczka she ordered digging a well. To the astonishment of all the people observing what was happening not only the first piece of salt was found but also the engagement ring!!! In this way Kinga became the patroness of salt miners and it is very probable it was she who brought the knowledge on the salt mining and introduced the royal monopoly of mining.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine always belonged to the ruler who had loyal people who administrated it. We know that in the XIV century, under Casimir the Great, the third part of the incomes came exactly from the mine itself, and the Krakow Academy - the first Polish university founded by the same king in 1364 was maintained by the money coming from trade of salt.
Kazimierz the Great ordered also the codification of the unwritten law of the country and that’s how the famous statute of the Wieliczka Salt Mine was created.

During the WWII the mine was used by German nazis as the amunition factory and Jews are said to have worked there.

The excavation of salt in Wieliczka stopped in 1996. The reasons were the flood the damages caused by the flood in 1992 in the lower part of the mine and low prices of salt. Nowadays it is still possible to buy salt coming from Wieliczka but it is obtained by boiling salinas - like in the Neolithic era.

The mine is 327 meters deep and consists of nine levels (the last ones are now under the water). All its corridors, galleries and chamber measure together more than 300 km so it means their lenght is bigger that the distance between Krakow and Warsaw!

It is a wonderful example of a unique underground world where the strength of nature meets the men wisdom. The whole generations of miners worked to create the Wieliczka Salt Mine that was fully appreciated in 1978 by the UNESCO becoming a part of the first World Cultural and Natural Heritage list.

Nowadays there are some 1,2 million of tourists visiting the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Some people go down not to visit the mine but to spend some time in the underground sanatorium since the air is very healthy and helps a lot in case of respiratory diseases.

During the typical visit that lasts around two hours you step down till 135 meters beneath the ground surface and you walk 2,5 km through corridors and chambers not only excavated by the miners all over the centuries but also adorned by them. You visit chapels dedicated to Saint Anthony, Holy Cross, Saint John. The most beautiful instead is Saint Kinga Chapel that was created in 1896 at 101 meters under the ground surface in a chamber excavated in the second part of the 19th century. The chapel itself is considered the biggest underground chapel all over the world and sometimes it is also called the underground cathedral. Saint Kinga Chapel was adorned with bass-reliefs and sculptures executed in salt by self-taught miners and the process last till our times since the statue dedicated to John Paul II was placed about ten years ago. Each Sunday at 8 am the mass service is celebrated there for Wieliczka inhabitants. There are also mass services on days dedicated to Saint Barbara and Saint Kinga - the miners’ patronesses. It is also possible to rent the chapel for weddings and special religious ceremonies.

There are some underground lakes as well and the most beautiful are in the Barącza Chamber and the Weimar Chamber. The second one hosts a wonderful short spectacle with the Chopin’s music, sound of miners’ blessing - Szczęść Boże - and sounds that in past times accompanied the excavation of the salt. In that chamber the light that goes on and off shows two salt statues - the first one is a cart filled with salt and the second one represents the Warden of the Mine - called Skarbnik - the tradition says he appeared each and every time when the miners were on risk to warn them about a coming danger and to make them run away. Both statues were shown on the Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany.

There are also some cozy dwarf figures spread in different parts of the mine - the legend says when the miners were very tired and had to have a nap, the little sprites appeared and helped with the hard work.

Many famous people visited the mine over the centuries and it is possible to see statues representing some of them in different chambers. Among famous visitors to the mine there were: Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish astronomer who visited the mine while studying at the Krakow Academy), Johann Wolfgang Goethe (German writer who went to the mines together with Duke Carl August of Weimer who was interesiting in mining), Alexander von Humboldt (German natural scientist), Dimitri Mendeleyev (Russian inventor and chimist), Ignacy Paderewski (Polish composer, pianist and diplomat), Józef Piłsudski (Polish Marshall), Robert Baden - Powell (Scout Movement founder) and Karol Wojtyła (future Pope JPII - he visited the mine as a boy, student, priest, bishop but not as pope).
It is important to strethen that all the statues - of saints, visitors, working people, sprites etc. were made by the miners - amateurs - who, instead of going back home to have a rest, stayed under the ground and created them.

Since the miners’ work was very hard in some chambers you can observe representations of miners’ work, their tools, devices, treadmills for horses and people, carts. There are also some original stairs conserved that, unfortunately for the miners, were not as comfortable as those used by tourists in our times.

There are also some places showing how dangerous the miners’ work was - you can see broken pillars, statues of miners called the penitents who were responsible of burning methane gas. You will hear also about the water and see a device called Paternoster and some wooden pipes that were to help to canalize the salines to gather it in order to obtain salt by boiling it.

There is also a wonderful timbering to be admired in this unbelievable underground world and the most relevant examples are still conserved in the Michałowice and Drozdowice Chambers.

The experience is unforgettable and plenty of people return to the mine to see it again since the tourist route is being enriched each year.

Tags: wieliczka