Wieliczka Salt Mine

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20/08/2023

We left our lay by Krakow car park and drove the short distance to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. We were asked to move from our initial parking and directed to the main car park which had coach bays. The security guard checked we were OK with the gates being shut. The next morning I had a discussion with the parking attendant about NOT paying £20 just to park over night (no services), in addition to the £10 to park during the day. My argument was that we’d not been told and no overnight charge was shown on the price board. I was persuasive enough.

The salt mines were justifyably one of Unesco’s first World heritage sights. We walked 2.5km of the 287km of tunnels. Many have now been back filled as collapsing or flooding. We descended 135m (442ft) although the mine went a lot deeper to 327m.

Fortunately the local area is covered in pine forests … so much uses in shoring up the tunnels. Apparently the salt preserves the wood.

Neolithic man harvested surface salt from brine and the first excavations commenced in C13 until 1997, when salt prices fell and tunnels started flooding.

Various technologies were used to extract and transport the grey rock salt.
A huge number of statues … apparently carving from rock salt is difficult, even for an expert.
Poland is a strongly Catholic country, and under some occupations, religion was discouraged. Despite this, the miners erected shrines and chapels, which moved as they moved along the tunnels.
There’s a massive cathedral. The walls are covered in carved reliefs. There were a lot of these chandeliers throughout the mine.
Pope John Paul II held a mass here.
Even an underground lake
Fortunately the lift took us back up … Old miners lifts with small cages stacked on top. An experience of it’s own.

The salt mines are one of Polands’ major attractions and we can see why. We oozed the morning and set off after lunch for Auschwitz

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