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Editor Pick
Where Tolkein Meets Jules Verne
- July 1, 2009
- Rated 5 of 5 by
Praskipark from Warsaw, Poland
No trip to Krakow would be complete without a visit to the unforgettable salt mines in Wieliczka. Although they are the oldest mines in the world still open, absolutely no knowledge of Polish history is needed to appreciate them.
The tour of the mines involves a lot of walking underground and a steep descent which included 300 steps if I remember correctly. Very young children and the elderly might wish to avoid it. A small portion of the tour is wheelchair accessible but you will need to pay extra for the lift. Remember that it remains a constant 15 degess Centigrade all year round in the mines so dress accordingly. I went in August and although it was scorching outside I did wear jeans and a fleecy hooded jaket and boy, I was perishing once inside the mines and my teeth wouldn't stop chattering.
As the primordial seas that covered the area dried up, they left thick deposits of rock salt. Humans, who arrived milennia later, quickly discovered the flavouring and preservative qualities of this valuable substance. They collected salt from the rocks and pools on the surface from at least 3000 Bc.
In the Middle Ages, the locals learnt to dig down to the uppermost portions of the salt deposits in open pits. The first known mines are from AD 1280, shortly after the arrival of Princess Kinga in Krakow.
Legend claims that when Princess Kinga (Kunegunda) of Hungary (1234-92) was betrothed to Boleslaw V the Bashful, she took a ring off her hand and threw it down a Hungarian salt mine, declaring that her dowry would be salt. Shortly after her wedding in Krakow, the new queen travelled to Wieliczka and ordered the locals to start digging for her dowry. When they struck rock, they chipped off a piece and handed it to her. It was pure rock salt and her ring was found miraculously suspended within it.
The historical reality seems to have been that Princess Kinga brought experienced salt miners and engineers in her retinue from Hungary. Her husband Boleslaw put royal patronage behind the mining operations at Wieliczka and nearby Bochnia. Within a few generations, salt production accounted for nearly a third of the royal income. Trade in salt was a major driver of the local economy and encouraged the development of infrastructure along the trade route from Wieliczka to Kazimierz to Krakow.
Wieliczka has more than 350 kilometres of tunnels, of which only 2 kilometres are part of the tourist track. You can buy tickets to see just the mines, or both mines and museum. Although the underground museum is fascinating I have noticed on many a visit that most tourists seem to be too tired to visit the museum and usually only visit the mines.
I recommend you see the tour with a guide. If a tour in English is not available when you visit, just buy a small guide book in English and do what I did, follow a Polish- language tour. The gudes repeat the text word for word.
I was surprised to discover that Wieliczka salt is a dirty grey when it is in large blocks. It only becomes white when it forms smaller crystals, such as the salty stalactites that appear on any object left in the mines near a source of moisture. You will be told by the guide not to lick the walls but there is always someone in the group who won't be able to resist and no, it wasn't me!
Another surprise is that miners occasionally succumbed to artistic urges, carving odd figures in the salt. At first they tended to be simple religious shrines for men working at a dangerous job. The Chapel of St. Kinga, however, is a full-blown underground church in which everything from the altar to the chandeliers is carved entirely from salt. It is absolutely fantastic to see and I just stood in awe as I couldn't believe that such a beautiful creation could be sculpted out of salt. You could close your eyes and imagine you were in a Tolkeinesque dream.
There are smaller chapels dotted around including the 17th century chapel of St. Anthony, also a huge saline lake and many statues of saints all made out of salt. In communist times, the workers were encouraged to carve more secular subjects, leading to a collection of salt-mining dwarves frozen in the middle of their work. This is quite a spectacular scene and one I will always remember.
The miners apparantely like to joke that the salt keeps them well preserved. There is a certain truth to their jest: the mines contain unusually clean and bacteria-free air. At a level below the one that tourists visit, there is a small hospital for respiratory disorders.
The easiest way to get to Wieliczka from Krakow is to take one of the minibuses that leaves every ten minutes from the front of the railway station (ul. Worcella). There are also PKS buses that run from the top of Starawislna Street opposite the main Post Office. Check departure details as details do chop and change. The trip takes around 40 minutes.
In Krakow you will see tours to the mines advertised but be aware that some of these are only offering transport to the mines not offering the services of a guide. The guide service can be arranged at the museum and costs roughly around £16 - 19 euros.
Summary
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Would I recommend a visit to the Wieliczka Mines - Yes, most definitely. It is a wonderful experience but be aware that because you will be with a tour you can't always spend as much time lingering in the ice chambers. The guides generally move along through the mines at a quick pace.
Although Krakow is one of Poland's most beautiful cities it is worth leaving the city for a few hours to visit this underground cavern of exquisite beauty. Put your woolies and boots on and climb those 300 steps - you will be in for a treat!
From journal Some Interesting Attractions to Visit in Poland
Editor Pick
A Fun Day Trip
- November 29, 2008
- Rated 3 of 5 by
caromeow from Prague, Czech Republic
Open:
1. April to 31.10 7:30am to 7:30pm
2. November to 31. March 8:00am to 5:00pm
In order to see the mines, you must take a tour. English tours are 61 to 64 zl depending on which month you go, or 46 to 49 for a reduced price ticket (children 4 to 15, students with student ID card). Children under 4 years old are free!
**If you want to take pictures, you need to pay 10 zl and they will give you a badge to put on your shirt. The tour guide will probably notice if you don't have the badge so I wouldn't recommend trying to get away with picture-taking without it.
web site: www.kopalnia.pl
Check the web site for tour times in various languages. Tours are very frequent in July and August, much less so in the winter.
My boyfriend and I were unsure about whether to go to the salt mine. We both thought it sounded really good, but some reviews I had read said it wasn't worth the price. We did go, however, and I really enjoyed it more than I thought I would! Also, we got student tickets, which helped us out a lot.
Getting there: I had read about lots of minibuses you can take, but when we were there, I didn't see any, so we took the regular bus. Perhaps these minibuses are more frequent in the summer. The bus was quite confusing. Take bus 304. The bus is on Pawia street, on the other side of the huge shopping center from the main train station. A one-way ticket costs 2.60. If you use the machine at the bus stop, you can also use notes, but if you use the machine on the bus, you need coins. You cannot buy tickets directly from the driver. The info sheet we picked up at the tourist office said that the trip would take 30 to 40 minutes. It took us 50 minutes. The first twenty or thirty minutes were spent just traveling around Krakow, so if you can find the bus 304 stop on the other side of the old town, it might be more comfortable. The next problem we encountered was, where do we get off the bus? The girl at the tourist info office said to get off in the center and that the town is not big, but it's not true at all. We definitely passed a stop called "centrum" or something similar, but luckily a woman on the bus helped us. Unfortunately I still don't know the name of the stop, but it's the second to the last stop on 304. You will see on the right side of the bus, a footpath that goes straight downhill beside a walled cemetery. This is where you get off, follow the path down until you reach a busy street, turn left and you will see the billboard for the mines. You will then see the entrance and follow the path up to the ticket office. The walk from the bus stop takes about ten minutes.
The tour: I was also unsure about how long the tour would last, as every source I had varied from 1.5 to 3.5 hours. I think our tour was about 2 hours long. When it finishes, you have the option to linger in the restaurant or continue to a tour of the museum. The museum was included in the price of our tickets, so we went along. This took about an hour, but the tour guide really rushed us. I don't know if it was because it was the end of the day and our tour guide was eager to get off on time, or if we started the tour too late or what, but it was a little bit annoying. She didn't give us much time to explore each room and she got angry at some members of our group, who lingered behind after she had moved on to another room.
On the tour, you will start with a lot of steps going down. Then you will see lots of different rooms, salt sculptures and chapels. We got to see one chapel that they only open in the winter, because they want to preserve it. We also learned about the history of the mines, which was interesting. The museum has examples of salt crystal formations, historical documents from the mine, and tools that were used in excavating the salt. If it doesn't cost extra, it's a good deal and I recommend it, despite being a bit rushed.
All in all, I had a good time on the tour, but I can imagine the tour groups might be much larger and less pleasant in the summer months. Our group was only about 15 people and was pretty pleasant. Plus, it's just a cool experience, if you've never been in a salt mine before :)
From journal Krakow in November
Editor Pick
Wieliczka Salt Mine
- May 9, 2006
- Rated 4 of 5 by
Mandan Lynn from Smithwick, South Dakota
Wieliczka Salt Mine
7:30am to 7:30pm (April 1 to October 31)
8am to 5om (November 2 to March 31)
English tour: 60 zloty, 50 zloty for students (slightly more expensive in July and August).
10 zloty for permission to take pictures or video.
The tour takes about 2½ hours.
There are salt mines all over the world. What makes this one special is not only that it's among the oldest, but it is also filled with magnificent salt sculptures created by the miners. It has been a tourist attraction for centuries, and has hosted such visitors as Copernicus, Pope John Paul II, and Goethe.
The most beautiful chamber in the mine, the Chapel of the Blessed Kinga, can be reserved for weddings and parties. The walls are covered with carvings of scenes from the Bible, which include a reproduction of da Vinci's The Last Supper. The relief is stunning—it looks like you could walk into the scene, but the carving is actually only 10 inches deep. The floor is, of course, salt, but it looks almost like marble thanks to the millions of visitors that walk on it every year. This masterpiece took three miners 70 years to complete.
The mine has seen bungee jumpers and even the world's first underground hot air balloon flight. The tunnels cover 300km.
This is certainly an enjoyable activity, though the admission price seems a little steep to me. Polish guides are cheaper; you might want to just brush up on the mine's history on your own and take a Polish tour if you're looking to save some money.
To get to Wieliczka from Krakow, catch a mini-bus at Starowislna Street. The buses that go to Wieliczka say have a sign that says "Wieliczka". You can ask the driver if he stops near the mine, just to be sure. It only costs 2.50 zloty each way and takes about 30 minutes. There's no time-table, but the buses run fairly often. I only waited at the stop for about three minutes when a bus arrived. Same for getting back—just wait at the same place where the driver drops you off.
From journal Krakow, Poland
Editor Pick
Wielczka Salt Mine: Lot's Wife is not here.
- June 24, 2005
- Rated 5 of 5 by
hagnel2 from Hamilton, Ontario
This is Europe’s oldest salt mine and was placed on UNESCO's world list in 1978. Many famous tourists have visited, including Copernicus {1493}, Goethe {1790}, political leaders, scientists, and artists.
The tourist route, around 20 chambers, was laid out at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, and salt has been mined here over the last 700 years. A complex of excavations leads through an eerie world of narrow tunnels, galleries, chapels, chambers, and lakes. One lake holds more than 300g salt per liter. The tour started with a walk down 378 steps to the shaft bottom {depth 64m}.
A Few Sights
The first chamber was the Copernicus; unsurprisingly, you will find a monument to the astronomer carved from a block of green salt. Next is the Chapel of Saint Anthony. This chapel has some older rock-salt sculptures and is the oldest of the underground chapels {1690}. The Janowice chamber’s six life-sized statues relate the discovery of the salt mine. Legend is that Kinga, the daughter of the King of Hungary, was given one of the salt mines in Hungary as part of her dowry. Kinga was affianced to Boleslaus, the chaste of Poland. She threw her engagement ring into the Hungarian mine and prayed that salt would be discovered in Poland. Shortly after her arrival in Poland, Kinga ordered the miners to dig in a particular place, knowing she would find salt, and miraculously, her ring appeared in the first block of salt, ensuring prosperity for Poland.
TheSpalone chamber presents carvings of penitents {experienced miners}. Methane was particularly hazardous, not having efficient methods of ventilation, and the use of oil lamps increased the danger. Burning it out eliminated this gas, and this was the penitents' job. Dressed in wet clothes and with torches on long poles, they crawled along the floors of the workings, burning off the methane.
The showcase of the tour was Saint Kinga’s Chapel; it is huge, and the carvings are most impressive. White crystal-salt chandeliers and far too many saints to relate, but bas-relief sculptures of the last supper and the figure of the crucified Christ are stunning. Mass is said here each Sunday and on all solemn days of the church.
The tour takes two hours and is a two-kilometer walk from start to finish. There are facilities for disabled visitors. A rattling high-speed elevator takes visitors back to the surface, but there was a 45-minute wait, and that was out of season.
Admission 50zly includes mining museum and ten zloty for camera use.
English tour 10am 11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:45pm, 3pm, and 5pm. The tour ends in the underground restaurant and gift shop.
The best way to get there from Krakow is the Lux minibus that leaves from outside the Krakow train station--look for the yellow sign near the intercity bus stops. Cost of the Lux-bus is 2Zl, and they leave every 10 minutes or so.
From journal Krakow Cornucopia: Further Afield.
Wieliczka Salt Mine
- March 11, 2005
- Rated 5 of 5 by
AineUiG from Rath Cairn, Ireland
One of the oldest salt mines in Europe, Wieliczka is for everyone except the claustrophobic!
The air is clean and dry, so if you have asthma or hay fever, the mine provides a break from pollution.
The tour takes you around some of the oldest parts of the mine. The miners have carved out some remarkable artwork, including an entire chapel.
Buses and trains leave from Krakow’s Glowny train station. There are limited tours in English in the winter, so check before you go at www.kopalnia.pl.
From journal Krakow In the Snow