The tour met outside St. Mary’s, well actually the Hard Rock Cafe, and about a 45 minute minibus ride to the mine. A UNESCO site, opened in the 13th century, the mine produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world’s oldest salt mines in operation. I think at one point I was about 450’/135m underground. I had never been in a mine before but was happy to find to it was not claustrophobic at all or even noticeable we were far underground other than the hundreds of steps to reach the main areas. We had a great guide who explained everything like that salt preserves the wood timber that keeps the tunnels secure. Metal would have corroded. Salt was huge prior to refrigeration and so Krakow for years enjoyed a prosperity due to their salt not unlike New Bedford MA with whale oil for lighting. It was also a crossroad point for trade.
Throughout the mine are depictions of how the men (no women allowed) worked at mining the granite grey salt.
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But the thing that attracts millions of visitors is the carvings and immense caverns dug so far under ground.
This seen depicts a prince offering his future bride a ring. http://www.polish4kids.com/kids-zone/legends/45-the-legend-of-saint-kinga To see the legend
Big blocks of salt are heavy. Hundreds of kilos
Water does corrode salt but then the water becomes nearly salt itself. You could not submerse yourself in this water. In fact during WWII when the Nazis occupied the caverns a group of 7 soldiers capsized in a boat in one of these pools. With the boat turtled above them they tried desperately to dive under the gunwale to escape but could not and eventually exhaustion and a lack of air killed them all.
Part of the mines are now used as a health spa as the highly salted air and soothing salt baths are healing. I had been feeling cold like symptoms for a couple of days so I reminded myself to breathe deeply. Never got the cold. And it just makes sense to use timbers to prevent a large cavern from collapsing
But the main attraction is a chapel
A really huge cavern that once the majority of the salt was removed the artisans, after work, did their thing.
Where even the floor is carved salt
And the master carver
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