Wieliczka is a town of Poland of almost 20.000 inhabitants, located at 14 km of Cracow and universally known for its mine of salt.

The city of salt

An arts center under ground

Since XIIIe century, Wieliczka exploits its underground rock salt layer on 9 levels and 300 km of galleries. It is the oldest salt mine of Europe still exploited to date. It shelters today a center of conferences of more than 1000 places making it possible to organize spectacles and sporting events to 125 m under ground and a museum. Lastly, with more than 200 m under ground a sanatorium is.

Salt sculptures

A whole of sculptures cut in the blocks of salt illustrates the legend of discovered mine and accommodates the visitor on his arrival on the first underground level.

Legends

This legend tells that a young Hungarian, fore-mentioned princess Kinga, receipt of the Polish prince Boleslas a splendid engagement ring which it dropped inadvertently in a well, near a salt mine that had offered to him his/her father the king Béla, just before it gets under way for her weddings. A little before arriving to Cracow, the voyage being long and harrassant, the procession stopped last once. Not finding sufficient water to refresh her people and her animals, the princess ordered to dig a well where it was, close to the village of Wieliczka. At this point in time one of the men felt while digging that it reached some-thing of very hard: it went up a large block of salt, inside whose scintillated the lost engagement ring.

Another legend wants that imps come to help the minors secretly, protecting them from the floods and the crumblings, which explains the presence of many imps carved in salt a little everywhere in the mine.

A church dug in salt

To a hundred meters of depth the most beautiful room of the mine is: the vault of happy the Kinga of Poland (Cunégonde), entirely of salt, which they are the ground, the reliefs, the statues, the sculptures or even the glosses. Many biblical scenes are represented (the escape in Egypt, the miracle of Cana, the order of Hérode, the massacre of the innocent, the Christ teaching in the temple, holy Thomas the incrédule, the Cène, Christ crucifié), one also finds there a Crèche of Christmas with all his characters.

This single work in the world was worth with the mine to be registered with the world heritage of UNESCO in 1978.

The mine was visited by many personalities, such as Jean-Paul II, Javier Solana or George Bush.

External bonds

• Site of the town of Wieliczka
• Site of the salt mine (in French)
• Welcome to The Salt off The Earth
• the exposure of technique of Wieliczka (in French)

Random links:

Pteropodidae | Tectosilicate | University of the fine arts of Teheran | Araguaína | Electrocute