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Writer's pictureMaximus Nostramabus

Wieliczka

Updated: Sep 14

The old salt mine with extraordinary salt rock sculptures - Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines 32

Saint Kinga Chapel
What and Why

The Wieliczka Salt Mine (Polish: Kopalnia Soli Wieliczka), excavated since the 13th century CE, produced table salt continuously until 2007 CE and was one of the world's oldest operating salt mines. The mine is located in Wieliczka, which is a city just south of Kraków.

Table salt, in the form of sodium chloride with brine welling up to the surface had been collected in the region since Neolithic times and a mine was established since the Middle Ages as a result of improvement in livelihood and culinary requirements. At one point it covered almost 1/3 of the entire income of Poland (Polska), and hence salt was considered so precious that it is referred to as white gold, as blogged earlier in Hallstatt. Throughout, the royal salt mine was operated by the Kraków Salt Mines (Żupy Krakowskie) company. The commercial operation was only discontinued as recently in 1996 CE due to constant flooding of the mine and falling salt prices, and the mine is now only a museum.

The mine is now an official Polish Historic Monument (Pomnik Historii). Its main attractions include the shafts and labyrinthine passageways, displays of historic salt-mining technology, an underground lake. The most eye-catching inside the mine are the salt-rock sculptures, miners had been carving various beautiful sculptures and statues and even four chapels out from rock salt!

The mine reaches a depth of 327 m and has a labyrinth of dug passageways of more than than 280 km! However the visitors can only access to and explore around 4 km of these mines.

Toponymy

Wieliczka evolves from its old name Wielka Sól, meaning ‘great salt’ in Polish, with obvious reasons.

See

Wieliczka Salt Mine (Kopalnia Soli Wieliczka)

Mine building with prominent headframe

One first take either the shaft or walk down to the depth of the mine. The descent is very deep and a rough estimate it is at least 60 m underground.

Descending the shaft staircase

Over the period of the mine's operation, many chambers were dug and various technologies were added over the years. The first few chambers mainly show the mining technologies that have evolved over the years. Some very primitive, some fairly modern.

Primitive tools inside the mine

The more primitive winch that transmits energy.

Primitive winch

As one moves to the deeper into the mine, one will start to find the rock-salt statues sculptured by the miners during their pastimes. By the way, rock salt is naturally of varying shades of grey and is very hard, it simply resembles unpolished granite rather than the white table salt we expect.

Nicolaus Copernicus

One of the first sculptures in sight: the famous Polish-Prussian mathematician-astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik) who presented the ground-breaking concept of heliocentrism. Polish Prussia (Prusy Królewskie), not to be confused with Prussia (Prussian: Prūsija), was a dependency under the Kingdom of Poland (Królestwo Polski).

Statuettes

Various other statuettes around. One of the most prominent figures honoured in the mine was Casimir III (Kazimierz III, né Kazimierz Piast), who inherited a weakened kingdom and doubled its territorial size during his reign. He was also known to contribute greatly to the development of the Wieliczka Salt Mine, granting it many privileges and taking the miners under his care.

Casimir great chamber

The bust of Casimir III.

Casimir III

Some of the sculptures were made by more contemporary artists. The following is one of those: the famed quasi-replicated Last Supper (Italian: Il Cenacolo).

Last Supper

A more whitish cave of passageways.

Passageway

Other exhibits.

Showpiece of the mine

More sculptures.

Various sculptures
John Paul II

The massive 135 m-underground lake.

Underground lake (from internet)

Saint Kinga Chapel (Kaplica Święta Kinga)

Saint Kinga Chapel

The most impressive of all feature is the Saint Kinga's Chapel (Kaplica Święta Kinga), honouring Princess Kinga. The legend on Kinga tells of a Hungarian princess about to be married to Bolesław V (né Bolesław Piast). As part of her dowry, she asked her father, Béla IV ( Béla Árpád) of Hungary (Hungarian: Magyaroszág) for a lump of salt, since salt was prize-worthy in Poland. Béla took her to a salt mine and she threw her engagement ring from Bolesław in one of the shafts before leaving for Poland. On arriving in Kraków, she asked the miners to dig a deep pit until they come upon a rock. The people found a lump of salt in there and when they split it in two and discovered the princess's ring. Kinga thus became the patron saint of salt miners in Kraków.

Chandelier from salt crystals

The impressive chandelier was made totally by salt crystals. There is a dining room that is used for private functions, including weddings.

Dining hall

Żupny Castle (Zamek Żupny)

Żupny Castle

A squarish Gothic (French: gothique) building, the Żupny Castle (Zamek Żupny) is the former headquarters of the Wieliczka Salt Mine. This is now converted to another museum of salt-mining, but by comparison, it falls a bit short of the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

Buy and Do

What else but salt products? The mine of course carries a good souvenir shop.

Gift shop
Eat and Drink

Polish dumpling (Pierogi)

We had one of the best dinners in Jarema, and this is what we discovered in Poland: Fine-dining is extremely good-for-value in Poland. This dinner below cost me less than PLN 150 zł for two people! The food in Poland is generally excellent and I will use another blog to describe Polish food in general. The food is so good that my cousin, who came with me during this trip, immediately asked for a return trip to the restaurant after the dinner!

Pierogi

Polish dumplings (pierogi, singular pieróg) are probably the most recognisable Polish food, and are very similar to our Chinese dumplings (Chinese: 餃子, jiaozi), in terms of its fillings, dough and cooking.

Roast veal

Aside from the food, the restaurant's decor oozes tradition and honestly everything is good. We also had chicken and roast veal (pieczeń cielęca). As my cousin said, a must-return restaurant.

Stay

We stayed in a basic but clean hostel known as Good Bye Lenin - Revolution hostel in Kraków. Excellent stay, very affordable and good value for money, and it is highly rated in various booking websites. However I realise they did a major renovation lately and so it may look different from this photograph.

Good Bye Lenin - Revolution
Getting There and Around

Wieliczka is around 45-minute bus or tram-ride away south of Kraków, and either way you arrive right in front of the site. There are also loads of local tours from Kraków, which by paying a small premium, you earn the fortune of not having to queue, which is long!

The entrance fee into the mine is 319 zł. The tour will take around 1.5 hour.

UNESCO Inscription
UNESCO sign

The deposit of rock salt in Wieliczka and Bochnia has been mined since the 13th century. This major industrial undertaking has royal status and is the oldest of its type in Europe. The site is a serial property consisting of Wieliczka and Bochnia salt mines and Wieliczka Saltworks Castle. The Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines illustrate the historic stages of the development of mining techniques in Europe from the 13th to the 20th centuries: both mines have hundreds of kilometers of galleries with works of art, underground chapels and statues sculpted in the salt, making a fascinating pilgrimage into the past. The mines were administratively and technically run by Wieliczka Saltworks Castle, which dates from the medieval period and has been rebuilt several times in the course of its history.

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