We were so excited to have Kevin (diminutive: Kevinuszki) visit us this past week, and as with all of our visitors, our time together was just too short! Perhaps the coolest (at the very least - top two) thing we did was visit the Kopalnia Soli "Wieliczka" (Wieliczka Salt Mine), an 800-year-old underground mining complex full of beautiful carvings, chapels, and chambers, located just a few kilometers east of Kraków. It was so great to share this new experience with Kev on his first trip to Europe!
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| Salt Rock Sculpture of Saint Kinga |
The medieval origin of the salt mine began with the marriage of Hungarian Princess (later Saint) Kinga to Prince Bolesław V of Kraków in 1239. Legend says that Kinga wanted to bring a special gift to Poland as part of her dowry and so she asked her father for a block of salt to bring to her new home. Salt was extremely valuable in the Middle Ages as a preservative but was a relatively rare substance in Poland. Once Kinga arrived, she dropped the salt block attached to her engagement ring down an old abandoned mine shaft and instructed the local miners to dig down until they hit rock. The miners dug and dug until they reached a depth of about 64 meters, where they found the ring atop what is still one of the largest and purest deposits of rock salt in the known world. Thereafter it became one of the Crown's most valuable properties.
Now, after almost 800 continuous years of salt mining and the excavation of nine subterranean levels reaching down to almost 400 meters, the Wieliczka Salt Mine is one of Poland's and indeed the world's most important geological and cultural heritage sites, drawing over 1,000,000 visitors per year. The mine's nine levels include almost 200 miles of mine shaft, over 800 chambers, dozens of carved chapels, and several subterranean lakes, all dug through enormous deposits of smooth gray rock salt, salt which even in the ground is purer than the salt we use at the kitchen table. The mine produced table salt until 2007, and is still officially an active salt mine employing several dozen miners.
Our descent to the first (and oldest) level of the mine came via 53 flights of a tight, short, wooden staircase. The air in the huge chambers and narrow mine shafts was cool and dry, kept that way artificially because heat and water cause salt to corrode, which woul
d of course bring the ceilings of the chambers crashing down. The walls, floors, and ceilings were all made of the smooth, dark gray rock salt, with veins of white (purest) salt running through, illuminated by the dull lamps lining the passages. Often the walls were supported by thick wooden pillars, many of which were hundreds of years old and petrified by the salty air. Much of the floor space was carved in diverse patterns as if tiled, but was in fact carved out of the solid rock salt deposit. The passages were punctuated every 50 meters or so by sets of wooden double doors which served as air locks, ensuring that air from the surface flowed through every passage in the mine. There was very little metal underground, as salt causes metal to corrode very quickly. Life-size models of the medieval mining equipment, such as water pumps, horse-drawn elevators, salt block sleds, and intricate stairways lined many of the passages.
Our tour covered the highest three levels of the mine, including most of the oldest chambers, all of which contained various huge statues of Polish saints, kings, and heroes, all carved out of giant blocks of rock salt. The most impressive chamber by far was the Chapel of St. Kinga, a huge church about the size of a concert hall carved out of solid rock salt (first picture seen above). Two enormous sets of stairs led down into the chamber from the rear. The wall spaces were all carved with beautiful 3-dimensional reliefs of biblical scenes, and three altars in the front employed various colors and purities of rock salt to highlight their statues and reliquaries. For example, the life-sized statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus used a piece of glowing pink rock salt for Jesus' heart (seen below). Like so much of the Wieliczka Salt mine, it was absolutely breathtaking!
