The Wieliczka Salt Mine (Polish: Kopalnia soli Wieliczka) is a salt mine located in the town of Wieliczka, near Kraków in southern Poland.

Salt was made there from brine that came up from underground since Neolithic times. The Wieliczka Salt Mine was dug out starting in the 13th century and produced table salt without stopping until 1996. It is one of the oldest salt mines in the world still in use during that time. The mine was operated by the Żupy Krakowskie (Kraków Salt Mines) company throughout its history.

Salt mining stopped in 1996 because salt prices dropped and water flooded the mine.

Today, the Wieliczka Salt Mine is an official Polish Historic Monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visitors can see the mine’s shafts, complex tunnels, displays of old salt-mining tools, an underground lake, four chapels, and many statues carved by miners from rock salt. There are also newer sculptures made by modern artists.

Description

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is 327 metres (1,073 feet) deep and has horizontal tunnels and rooms that stretch for more than 287 kilometres (178 miles). The salt found there is naturally different shades of grey and looks like rough granite instead of the white, shiny salt people might expect.

Inside the mine, there is an underground lake, displays showing the history of salt mining, and a 3.5-kilometre (2.2-mile) path for visitors. This path makes up less than 2 percent of the mine’s total tunnels. Along the way, there are statues made from the salt, created at different times.

History

The first record of the mine dates back to 1044, when Casimir I gave a special right. Monks collected salt around that time.

Starting in the 13th century, brine rising to the surface was gathered and processed for table salt. During this time, wells were dug, and the first shafts were made to mine rock salt. From the late 13th to early 14th century, the Saltworks Castle was built. Today, Wieliczka is home to the Kraków Saltworks Museum.

King Casimir III the Great helped develop the Wieliczka Salt Mine by giving it many rights and caring for the miners. In 1363, he built a hospital near the mine. It is said that he changed Poland from a land of wood to a land of stone because of the large amount of wood used for scaffolding and supports from nearby forests. This brought great wealth to the country.

By 1871, the mine was one of the most productive in the world. Scientific American noted three types of salt at that time. Green salt had clay and was not clear. Spiza salt was sandy and had crystals. Szybik salt was the purest and most crystalline.

Over time, many rooms were carved, and new tools were added, such as the Hungarian horse treadmill and the Saxon treadmill for moving salt to the surface. By the late 1890s, machines and blasting were used to extract salt. In 1915, miners were paid about 20 cents per day. During World War II, the mine was used by the Germans for war-related work. Between August and October 1944, Jewish prisoners from concentration camps were forced to work in the mines.

In 1978, the Wieliczka Salt Mine was added to the original UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. From 1989 to 1998, it was on the List of World Heritage in Danger because humidity from artificial ventilation in the late 19th century threatened the sculptures.

A legend about Princess Kinga of Poland tells of a Hungarian princess named Kinga who was to marry Bolesław V the Chaste, Prince of Kraków. As part of her dowry, she asked her father, King Béla IV of Hungary, for a lump of salt, since salt was valuable in Poland. Before leaving for Poland, she threw her engagement ring into a mine shaft. When she arrived in Kraków, she asked miners to dig until they found salt. When they split the salt, they found her ring. Kinga became the patron saint of salt miners in Kraków.

During the Nazi occupation, thousands of Jews were moved from camps in Plaszow and Mielec to work in an underground factory in the mine, set up by the Germans in 1944. A forced labor camp was created in St. Kinga Park with about 1,700 prisoners. However, the factory was not completed because the Soviet army was advancing. Some equipment was moved to Liebenau in the Sudetes mountains and later returned after the war. The Jews were sent to factories in Litoměřice (Czech Republic) and Linz (Austria).

The mine is one of Poland’s official national Historic Monuments, listed on September 16, 1994. It is managed by the National Heritage Board of Poland. In 2010, the nearby Bochnia Salt Mine, Poland’s oldest salt mine, was added to the UNESCO list. The two mines are now listed together as the “Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines.” In 2013, the UNESCO site was expanded to include the Żupny Castle.

Tourism

The mine is one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments (Pomniki historii). It has many statues and four chapels carved from rock salt by miners. Older sculptures have had new carvings added by modern artists. About 1.2 million people visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine each year.

Important people who have visited the site include Nicolaus Copernicus, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt, Fryderyk Chopin, Dmitri Mendeleyev, Bolesław Prus, Ignacy Paderewski, Robert Baden-Powell, Jacob Bronowski (who filmed parts of The Ascent of Man in the mine), the von Unrug family (a famous Polish-German royal family), Karol Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II), former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and others.

The mine is divided into two parts: the Tourist Route and the Museum Route. The Tourist Route includes the first three levels of the mine. It takes about 1.5 hours to walk the 2.2-kilometre path. It is famous for the St. Kinga Chapel, which has interior designs carved from salt and brine lakes. One of the lakes is used for a sound and light show with music by Frédéric Chopin. After visiting the Tourist Route, tourists can go to the Museum Route. The Museum Route is known for its unique collection of horse mills, an exhibition of salt crystals, and large rooms like the Maria Teresa and Saurau Chamber. The Museum Route is entirely on the third level of the mine and takes about 50 minutes to walk the 1.5-kilometre path.

The St. Kinga Chapel and some chambers are used for private events, such as weddings. One chamber has walls carved by miners to look like wood, similar to wooden churches from earlier times. A wooden staircase leads to the mine's 64-metre (about 210-foot) level. An elevator (lift) takes visitors back to the surface. The elevator holds 36 people (nine per car) and completes the trip in about 30 seconds.

In culture

The earliest written records about the Wieliczka Salt Mine include a description by Adam Schröter titled Salinarum Vieliciensium incunda ac vera descriptio. Carmine elegiaco… (1553); an updated version, Regni Poloniae Salinarum Vieliciensium descriptio. Carmine elegiaco… (1564).

The Polish journalist and writer Bolesław Prus described his visit to the salt mine in 1878 in a series of three articles titled Kartki z podróży (Wieliczka) ["Travel Notes (Wieliczka)"], published in Kurier Warszawski (The Warsaw Courier) in 1878, issues 36–38. A scholar of Prus, Zygmunt Szweykowski, noted that the powerful scenes of the Labyrinth in Prus’s 1895 novel Pharaoh are partly inspired by Prus’s own experiences during his visit to Wieliczka. The Wieliczka Salt Mine influenced Pharaoh. Prus combined his impressions of the mine with descriptions of the ancient Egyptian Labyrinth from Book II of Herodotus’s Histories to create the scenes in chapters 56 and 63 of his novel.

The 2013 young adult novel Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz features a character named Yanek Gruener, a Jewish teenager from Kraków who faced persecution by Nazi Germans during the Holocaust. In chapter thirteen, Yanek is temporarily moved to Wieliczka for work duties.

In 1995, Preisner's Music, a collection of film music by Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner, was recorded by Sinfonia Varsovia in the chapel inside the Wieliczka mine.

In 1999, the mine was shown in a Modern Marvels episode about salt mines in the United States.

The Australian television series Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord used the Wieliczka mines as a setting for the Land of the Moloch.

The mine has appeared in several episodes of the reality show The Amazing Race, including Velyki Perehony, HaMerotz LaMillion 2, The Amazing Race Australia 1, and The Amazing Race 27.

• A documentary film titled Wieliczka – Sól ziemi (Wieliczka – The Salt of the Earth), directed by Sadrolin Tam, was filmed inside the salt mine.