The old salt mine with extraordinary salt rock sculptures - Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines 32
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)
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.
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.
The more primitive winch that transmits energy.
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.
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).
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.
The bust of 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).
A more whitish cave of passageways.
Other exhibits.
More sculptures.
The Polish icon, Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus II; Jan Paweł II, né Karol Wojtyła).
The massive 135 m-underground lake.
Saint Kinga Chapel (Kaplica Święta Kinga)
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 (né 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.
The impressive chandelier was made totally by salt crystals. There is a dining room that is used for private functions, including weddings.
Żupny Castle (Zamek Żupny)
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.
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!
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.
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.
Travel Suggestions and Logistics
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.
As mentioned in our blog in Kalwaria Zebrzykowska, a full itinerary is best linked with Kraków and Auschwitz (Oświęcim) to form a week-long holiday in south Poland.
UNESCO Inscription
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.
References
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Please share your thoughts and comments about the blog. If you need suggestions to build a travel itinerary, please let me know. More than willing to help. I would also like to build a bespoke-travel community around UNESCO WHS and ICH.
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