THE SALT MINES OF POLAND

​Outside of Krakow, Poland, are the Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines, the oldest tunnels of which were dug in 1248. Close to one another, they are an official Polish Historic Monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. My photos show the largest Wieliczka chamber, located about 800 feet underground, plus the dining hall as it was being prepared for a banquet. Except for wood pilings and the electrical parts, the wall, floor, ceiling, candelabra, staircases, statuary, relief panels, chapel niches, and tunnels are carved entirely out of the vast layers of grey-colored rock salt.
 
You can rent the facility for weddings and receptions. The chapel is often said to have the best acoustics in Europe and many musical recordings have been done there.
 
The maximum depth of the tunnel system is a little more than a thousand feet, there are 178 miles of tunnels and chambers, and it was a full-blown enterprise producing commercial quantities of table salt until 2007. There is still enough mining activities to provide tourists with token salt containers and chunks of rock salt in the gift shops above ground.
 
There is also a large brine-solution lake where guided tour boats are available, but swimming is not allowed. The water is crystal clear and the level of quiet is impressive. The typical guided tourist route is 2.2 miles in length, so it is not a casual walk; lots of descending stairs. There are statues, vignettes, and salt relief panels along the way. There is a special statue of Karol Wojtyla (later, Pope John Paul II) in the chapel, who attended it’s dedication.
 
In the nearby Bochnia mine, which has only 2.8 miles of tunnels but descends to over 1500 feet, a small town has been created out of its tunnels and chambers, and is open to visitors. I did not tour that mine. A three-hundred-bed sanatorium is currently operated there, plus fields for playing volleyball, basketball, and handball. There is also a restaurant and conference rooms; I don’t know how bathrooms are handled. The air stays a constant temperature of 57-61 degrees Fahrenheit, with a relative humidity of 70%, and is recognized for its purity.  
 
The beginning and end of my tour involved riding an (old) industrial elevator. The cars are a steel-mesh-enclosed five-foot square box, not much more than six feet tall, and the operators cram as many as eight or nine people inside at a time. It provides a nice level of excitement. About 1.2 million people visit annually.
 
During March and April, 1944, the Nazis used the Wieliczka chambers for an armament factory. Several thousand Jews were transported from the forced labor camps in Plaszow and Mielec to an above-ground labor camp in St. Kinga Park, with about 1700 prisoners being used in the mine itself. However, manufacturing never began as the Soviet Army soon occupied the area; the Jews were relocated to factories in Litomierzyce in the Czech Republic and Linz in Austria.

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