Thu May 23 - 15:00 (Krakow)

Ricky and I are now heading back to the city center from the Wieliczka Salt Mines.

They were very spectacular. We got our tickets and bus from Krakville Tours. The Tour took about 3 hours and we walked for miles in the mines. We started walking down 50 floors, down a wooden mine shaft.

Then we continued through the tunnels cut out of the salt rocks. It was interesting that the salt air was very healthy for you and Polish people can get an appointment for a spa under their social health care system. The micro organisms, salt, and minerals in the air help with asthma, skin problems, and other medical issues.
The mines are 700 years-old and at one time employed 2,000 miners. These miners were not prisoners, slaves, women, or children, but rather men who were proud of their profession. You could see the development of tools throughout the centuries in the mines from the hand carts, to horse-pulled carts, to mechanized carts.

They brought horses down the mine and they would have to live there their whole lives because it was too traumatic to bring them up and down the shaft everyday. Unlike the coal mines, where horses would go blind, the salt mine horses did not suffer from any health problems. The mine closed salt production in 1996 and the last horse was taken out in 2002.

There were many sculptures from hundreds of years ago as well as the sculpture of Pope John Paul II, visited the mines 3 times. In 1999, Pope John Paul II canonized St. Kinga, who was a women of nobility in Hungary in the 13th Century and accordingly to legend found the salt deposits of the area. The largest hall in the mines was called St. Kinga's Chapel.
St. Kinga's Chapel

Many church services and weddings are performed there year round. The hall serves as an altar and as a work of art. Some of the attractions are the Danilowcz Shaft, the Great Legend Sculpture, Gnomes sculpture, the Weimar Chamber, the Erazm Baracz Chamber, the Pieskowa Skala Chamber, St. Kinga's Chapel, and the Nicholas Copernicus Chamber.

Our tour guide was very entertaining and funny. His name was Thomas. He made jokes like saying that the salt air is why he has aged so well. He said he is only 125 years-old and he is one of the younger tour guides. Now there are 200 miners who do maintenance work and service the mines. Most of the salt was used up so they turned the mine into a tourist site, but Poland still has many active salt mines.
This particular mine formed because at one time there was a large lake (35?) millions of year ago. Eventually, the lake dried up and left the salt behind. The seismic activity mixed the salt into the earth and formed the salt rocks that are there today. They use support rods to keep many rocks from closing in on the mine, but water is the biggest threat to preservation. They pump the water out of the mines and back to the surface to keep the water from breaking down all the salt rocks. Our guide said there is many 'forests' that were cut down to support the shafts and tunnels in the mine. The mine gets about 1 million visitors every year. It was very interesting to hear about the history of the Wieliczka Mines and to learn about all the different groups of people who were influenced by it.