April 25, 2011: Krakow Day 4: Wieliczka Salt Mine

April 25, 2011: Today we took a tour that visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine. I tried very hard to find Ruth a job in the mine, but the mine refuses to hire women to work in the mines! Talk about discrimination! 

Wieliczka Salt Mine

The Wieliczka Salt Mine goes down nine levels to a depth of 327 meters. Our tour took us down to the top three levels (highest of these is 64 meters deep). The mines still produce salt but of course not in the same quantity it once did.


We started our tour by walking down 1280 steps to the highest level. The chamber we arrived in was 36 meters high. During our tour we visited only 1% of the total length of the entire salt mine. The salt that coats the walls of the mine was very dark green and was 95% pure salt; the other 5% contained minerals to give it the green color. 

Throughout the mine are many statues sculpted from the salt. Among the first statues we encountered were those of a king and queen. The queen was Hungarian and she had lost the ring that her Polish suitor had given her in Transylvania (now a part of Romania) in 1642. Somehow, it is said that the ring, although lost in Transylvania, was moved underground by currents (or whatever) to the salt mine where it was later found.

As one can imagine, underground gas was a problem so special precautions were in place to ensure that the mine was pumped with fresh air. To help the miners with their jobs, there were horses that lived in the mines, many being born there and living there without ever surfacing to the earth above for many years. As many as 100 horses worked there and they typically worked there for five years before being brought up. However, horses are no longer used in this operational mine, the last horse finishing his/her work in 2002. 


Salt was first mined 6000 years ago (although our tour guide updated this statistic claiming that since he's worked in the mine for nine years when he first reported that salt was mined 6000 years ago, so therefore salt was really mined 6009 years ago!) As for this mine, salt has been mined since 1288 and has never employed a woman to do this work. During this time, salt was hand dug until the second half of the 19th century and after that, machinery was used. 


The mine is 264 km long altogether and in 1891 electricity was installed for the first time. As many as 2000 men worked in the mine in a single day and they were able to produce 1000 tons of salt per day. Currently the amount of salt mined is 15,000 tons of salt per year. The three types mined are kitchen salt, industrial salt, and bath salt.


The carving of the statues began in 1862. One of the things carved was a church and church services are still held every week in this chapel.

Chapel in Wieliczka Salt Mine

Chapel in Wieliczka Salt Mine

Chapel in Wieliczka Salt Min

Chapel in Wieliczka Salt Min

Here are some other pictures taken in the salt mine.

 

After returning to Krakow, we still had enough time to start exploring the Wawel Castle. 

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle - note footprints of former cathedral in foreground

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle church - statue of Pope

Wawel Castle

We visited the Royal Palace (part of the castle) which was built from 1504 to 1535.

Royal Palace built 1504 - 1535

We could not take a tour inside the Palace because it was too late in the day, but we were able to go into the church. No pictures could be taken inside the church but I did get some good ones in the steeple.

Bell of Wawel Chapel

View from Steeple of Wawel Chapel

The bell was quite interesting. It weighs 9,650 kg; the clapper of the bell alone weighs 365 kg and other parts add up to 425 kg. When the bell is rung, it takes 12 ringers to ring it. The tone of the bell is F# and the audability range is 30 km (~18.6 miles).


We also visited a nearby church.

Afterwards we went to the Town Square taking pictures of a church along the way.

Although I had visited the castle twice, it was clear that we would have to return to the castle the next day to see the remaining sites there including the tours given of the castle. More on that tomorrow.