|
Just outside Krakow are the Royal Salt Mines of Wieliczka. Miners have been collecting rock salt here since at least the 13th century. The miners spent most of their lives underground; during their idle times, they carved statues into the rock salt. The mine no longer produces salt commercially, but the miles of passages and the statues sculpted out of the rock salt have become major tourist draws. After we got shut out of the Rynek Underground in Krakow, I was worried that we would arrive at Wieliczka and find that all the tickets were sold out. It is a short drive from Krakow to Wieliczka, we were there well before the first English speaking guided tour departed at 8:30 AM. There were 23 people in our group (maximum group size is 40 visitors). I found out later that it is possible to purchase tickets ahead of time at the Wieliczka Promotion Office in the Old Town square in Krakow. Prepurchasing your ticket is a good idea, when we returned to the surface after our excursion, the Wieliczka ticketing area was mobbed with people; the tour is quite popular. The tour takes about 2 hours. I paid the 10 extra zloty fee for being allowed to use my camera while on the tour, which meant I had a sticker on my shirt allowing me to take take pictures while underground. I did not see anyone else with a sticker allowing them to take photos, yet many of the other tourists did take pictures without our guide making any attempt to stop them. The standard tourist admission was 84 zlotys. We had read that the underground mines are cool, and so brought our jackets, but I was too warm when I wore mine on the tour. The obvious interesting part of the tour is seeing all the statues carved out of the rock salt. Especially in the chapel of Saint Kinga, where there are many interesting religious images. The more subtle but still interesting thing about the salt mine is realizing that all of these miles of passageways and chambers were dug out by miners using torches as a light source and hand tools for attacking the hard rock crystals, though in the later years gunpower was employed to blast the rock salt free. The mines are deep, it must have taken the miners a long dark time to reach their digging positions each morning at the start of the work day. I enjoyed our visit and I am glad we stopped here. The Wieliczka Salt Mines were one of the original 13 sites on the first UNESCO list of World Heritage sites when it was first announced in 1978. We try to visit as many UNESCO sites as we can when we take our vacations. Video: Saint Kringa's Chapel
|
Single Click on any thumbnail to begin the slide show at that photograph Salt Mine Photos 
|