The Krakow adventure: Wieliczka salt mine (part 2)

Krakow is always full of surprises. It is one of the most wonderful cities in the European continent. Poland is such a wonderful country bestowed with equally wonderful cities. Krakow is one of these stunning cities of this eastern European country. You should visit Krakow in one of the European tours that you are planning in the near future and I assure you that you would certainly not regret it. I guess Krakow is considered the cultural center of Poland because of its well-preserved cultural and historical architectures that until this day remain a classic reminder of the efforts exerted by Polish people in the past of their cultural and historical heritage.

Speaking of the well-preserved structures in Poland, I could not help but bring out the well-known Wieliczka salt mine. Truly it can be considered as a beauty of the past that continues to bring joy to the present. It is regarded as among the most famous salt mines in the world. In my opinion, it is indeed one of the most beautiful salt mines in the world. Perhaps, there are other superlatives that I can ascribe to the magnificence of the structures that are found inside the salt mine which in themselves are classic in the very sense of the word.

On the public guided tour

The best way to explore the salt mine is through guided tour. There are excellent reasons why you should join the guided tour. First, the mine can only be visited through a supervised guided tour. The underground salt mine is just too difficult to navigate without a guide that will steer the direction from one point to another point in the site. In fact, you could get lost without a guide who will bring you to the different highlights of the underground trip up until you get into the exit. If you are thinking of exploring it on your own, then you might as well be taking a risk. You might get lost of your way as you traverse the labyrinth salt mine. Second, well, the tour guides are well-trained and they fully well know what they are doing. I believe they have been subjected to some sorts of intensive training in order to be able to educate well the participants of the guided tour giving them significant historical and cultural facts which really are interesting. This, I believe, makes exploration of the mine more insightful and informative as you would be able delve on some insiders’ information regarding the history of the mine and other stuffs that would make you feel in awe of the beauty before you. Finally, joining the guided tour offers you a more convenient and dependable way of discovering the important features of the site; the tour guides are just full of tales and stories about the mine that you should not miss. I, for one, enjoyed the storytelling treat of the tour guide.

The beginning of our underground journey

Our group needed to wait for out turn before we could enter the mine. After the group has been called, we needed to fall in line, hand our individual tickets and undergo entrance check before we can gain entrance. We were equipped with an audio so that we stay connected with the guide making sure that everybody is in the loop.

We commenced our journey to the underground unknown at Danilowickz Shaft. It was here that we have met our tour guide. It was at first get-to-know session. We were first introduced to our guide, a chubby jolly lady who speaks good English so there was no problem communicating with her as we can easily understand what she was saying. After that, our tour guide shared us some bits of history about the mine. She delivered a brief historical lecture regarding the mine, bringing us wealth of facts about it, how it was established, destroyed a bit during the war and preserved.

Of toil and hardwork

After a few minutes of traveling further, we were able to finally reach some areas of the underground mine. It was really dim, but of course there were some lights along the pathway. Personally, I never imagined myself going into the depths of the mine, more particularly to some unknown underground mine in a foreign country. I would say this was my first time to dive deep into the depths of the earth.

We were told by the tour guide that this mine was not built in a year. It was a product of a hundred years of toil and labour by the miners. You just imagine how local folks in the ancient Poland were able to carve an underground mine and its magnificent structures, with depth which I think could be really unimaginable. I was just thinking how laborious the job was of transporting soil being dug up from the depths to the surface of the earth.

Another thing that made me think so deeply was the value being ascribed to salt during those days. Salt, I would say, was a very important commodity in the olden days so much so that the local folks in Poland were really determined to dig this precious commodity deep from the heart of the earth. Just imagine how they really laboriously worked and toiled for a great number of years just to be able to bring up salt for the people.

Of course, we knew from the very start that salt was used as a wage for soldiers in the ancient Rome. It was like a precious grain whose worth is incomparable. Salt was used to preserve food. It was also used as condiment for food and it might have been a luxury for a household to have salt in their kitchen back then to the olden days. Toil and hardwork---that’s how salt was successfully made available to people during the ancient days.

On dark pits and chambers

If you are thinking of this underground trip as an easy adventure, then you are mistaken. The voyage down the mine is really not for the chicken-hearted. I was there and I could assure you that it will take some of your strength and you will get pumped up from your energy source. Personally, when I felt that we were already midway the depths of the mine, I was tired like a dog. There were occasional resting periods but you might lose grip of the flock’s loop if you stay in one area too long so you should remain within the group’s loop by listening to the tour guide actively.

The photo below shows just one of the implements used by the miners in the olden days.

I was wondering how many steps we have already taken. At first I was counting the steps we made in the next thirty minutes. Then after a while, I got tired of it so I really did no longer bother myself counting steps. Guess how many steps from the beginning up until the finale? They are not too many any ways (just kidding!). Just to warn you of the impending physical activity you may experience in the mine which you should be ready of, you expect as much as 800 steps! Yeah, you read it right, the steps are almost a thousand. Accordingly, when you are way up to 350 steps, at least you already knew that you have already reached the mine proper. I thought otherwise when I was there. I thought the underground mine trip was already done, but I was mistaken. We were just actually starting!

So as a matter of practical wisdom, do not wear heels ( I am just exaggerating).What I am trying to say is that you should not wear shoes which you think could not withstand the wear and tear of the ups and downs of the trip. Wear a durable rubber shoes, perhaps. Try to make yourself as comfortable as possible.

Well, what do you expect to see as you traverse one point to another point in the mine? All you see from the depths are seemingly an endless pit with your tour guide bringing you from one chamber to another. It is really beyond my pale of imagination how people were able to build chambers after chambers inside an underground mine. Was this really possible? Well, you see what you believe. But to be very honest, I really could not believe my eyes myself the first time I saw it. But it’s real. It was crazy but to be very honest, this underground masterpiece really deserved to be listed as a UNESCO-declared heritage.

Of tales and stories

One interesting thing I took notice of during the trip was our jolly chubby tour guide. She was an amazing guide that in just a matter of almost an hour and half, we were able to absorb lots of information which we could have digested for around four or five hours. She made the presentation light and comfy. She was so approachable but strict in observing and imposing the rules to the tour participants. And the best of all, she told tales and stories about the mine in a very lively and passionate manner that we could imagine and form visual images of the characters she was describing in the story. Well, the truth was she was very entertaining and a delight to be with.

She told us about the intensive labour and hard work undertaken by the miners. She told us that the miners were being paid with salt as wage in exchange for the work they render in the mine. She would also relate us how indispensable the horses were in the process of transporting the salt from the ground to the surface. She showed us the different mine implements that were used. Well, they were traditional tools used by the miners but if you look at them very intently that traditional as they may seem, they really utilize scientific principles of physics and hydraulics. It was really a thing of marvel when you ponder upon the fact how the local folks from the past were able to manage a deep mine like this with crude tools and technology.

Another interesting story that was relayed us by the ever dynamic and energetic guide was the story of Prince Kinga. For those who already have heard of the story of Princess Kinga, what I will be telling you may already sound like a twice-told tale but for the benefit of our readers who have not heard of her story yet, I am deeply pleased to share it with you.

According to the oral tradition, Princess Kinga was the daughter of a Hungarian King. The Polish King, Boleslaw, asked for Princess Kinga’s hand for marriage from the King of Hungary. The Hungarian King was honored to hand his daughter to the noble king from Poland. Now in order for the Hungarian king to bestow magnanimity to Poland, he tried to offer gold and silver to the Polish King. I believe this was the customs before, the giving of gold and silver to the would-be husband by the bride’s parents. However, Kinga had an idea different from that of her father. She instead told her father to give her would-be husband salt since Poland already possessed lots of gold and silver and did not have that much salt. Having said that, the Hungarian king permitted Kinga to take as much salt as they can from Hungary.

It was told that even before the princess had reached Poland for her marriage, she already had a premonition, a not so good one. This is a premonition which every bride excited to get married and be tied with her husband forever. Accordingly, she dropped her engagement ring inside the mine (it sounds like this might be the reason why others believe that the marriage has never been consummated).

After the tying of the knot, Kinga has been said to have visited a town near Prague, now the town of Wieliczka. There she commanded that a well be dug. So the miners from all over the country took heed of the princess’ order. As they dug the well, they notice that there were really hard chunks of stones, which apparently are somewhat dirty white in colour. Every time they dig, they have to stop momentarily to remove these huge chunks of stones. It turned out that these stones were actually salt. It has been told that the first stone that was dug was lifted up to the surface and to Princess Kinga’s surprise, she found her lost ring inside this stone. From this well, came so many salt chunks. From that time on, this site has become the ground source of salt for the entire country. In recognition of the Princess’ seemingly miraculous ingenuity, she was declared the patron saint of salt miners.

A world of its own

The Wieliczka is a world of its own. In my opinion, this place looks like a miniature of the world. This is so because it has almost the same conditions and features which resembles that of the outside world. It has chambers and chapels, museums and theaters.

This stage found inside the mine salt is where some events are held. It looks like a boxing event was about to be staged when we visited the salt mine.

These structures remind me of a typical outside world community where institutions exist. In the underground mine, chambers are really of great numbers. If you want to pray and have a silent communion with God, you can visit one of the chapels here.

The ceilings of the chambers are equally magnificent where you can see artistic designs which were carved out by hands. They were undeniably a marvelous work of art. I was also able to see the stalactites and stalagmites of salt rocks hanging and clinging to the walls and ceilings. Some cloud-like and spiral-like salt formations likewise appeared in certain parts of the mine. We were told by the tour guide that the miners came to call the cloud-like salt rock formations as broccoli and the latter, the spiral-like salt formations as spaghetti.

 As we traversed one chamber to another, I felt as though participants were being introduced into a microcosm of the outside world. It was dark but life seemed to have thrived here hundreds of years ago. I was thinking that the salt mine must have been a great community of people who lived through hard work and labor. Salt was so valuable then that it is almost synonymous to life. The underground mine community was built by the Polish miners which I believe took generations of miners in order to come up with this breathtaking underground structures. The product of the miners’ hand aided by simple mining tools, the Wieliczka is truly a monumental man-made engineering structure worthy to be kept and preserved in order for the next generation to see and to give due value to the heritage of the past.

On underground topography

Lakes, its temperature, salt springs, the earth formations inside the mine, the underground salt mine appears to have a very marvelous topography. The temperature inside the mine is around 14-17 degree Celsius. Inasmuch as the mine is protected from possible explosion, it is strictly prohibited to smoke inside it.

The climate inside the mine has therapeutic effect. It has been said that when you enter the mine you can try tasting the salt that cling to the walls. I tried it. The rocks were really made of pure salt. Even some small springs where water flows are full of salt. This salty water has the power to heal certain illnesses according to the tour guide. It was even claimed that staying there overnight can cure certain allergic skin diseases.

One of the best topographic features of the underground mine that I have witnessed was the salt lake. It is situated in one of the chambers inside the mine. When we get there we were treated with a classical music that resonates with good acoustics inside the mine. As the music plays, a gradual appearance of light started to show off. And as the music fades, the lights descend down the salt lake. It was a sterling spectacle! I felt like a mystery suddenly unfolded as I looked into the salt lake, a mystery that remains unresolved. The salt lake appears to be very enigmatic to me. It is as though it is hiding a great number of secrets which only the walls of the mine know.

Salt museum of Krakow

Finally, a visit to the Salt Museum has closely capped the trip. Once you have reached the Salt Museum, it signals that you are already near the end of the trip. Several works made of salt were featured along this part of the site. Well, what can I say? The museum is definitely a must-see visit for everybody. Again, you would be delivered with some historical highlights of certain periods in Polish history.

I was really amazed with the galleries and the displays in the museum. It is full of objects and artifacts that remind one of the establishment of the salt mine from the earliest beginning up until the current period. It was a perfect way to learn so much in so short a time about Poland and the role that the salt mine played in the country’s history. It also emphasized the importance of the salt mine in the cultural heritage of the country as a whole.

Back to the world

Once we were able to get through the second leg of the tour, we were on our way to go back to the outside world. After getting down the depth for a few hundred meters, how do you think were we able to go up? It was through a lift. The lift can accommodate only as much so just like in the beginning of the tour, you need to wait in the queue as a great number of tourists who finished the tour will also most likely desire to go up after an excitingly crazy underground trip.

The lift brought us up for a matter of less than a minute I think. It was so quick that you would not be aware having reached the ground-level surface.

---

Photo gallery