It was good to change mood after that somber visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The coach journey to Wieliczka would take around 2 hrs (1.5 hr to get to Krakow, then another 0.5 hr to the mine) in the traffic. The mine is located to the south of Krakow while Auschwitz was due west. Michael gave us our pack lunch to eat on the bus enroute. Traffic was better than expected. We arrived at our destination at 3.40pm ahead of the scheduled 4.25pm. We had the opportunity to explore the town itself.
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| interior of St Clement |
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| Garden dedicated to memory of Pope John Paul II |
From the coach stop opposite the mine to the town, we passed a garden dedicated to the memory of Pope John Paul II. At the end of the garden, was a Zupny Castle which used to be the headquarter office for the salt mine. Opposite it, the Church of St Clement. We decided to take a peek into the church. It is a very ornate church. We were alone in the church for a while which allowed us to explore and appreciate the richness of the artwork within.
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Zupny Castle
one the headquarters
of Wieliczka Mine |
We then went over to visit Zupny Castle which has a history that dates back to medieval times. There was information on how salt was processed once it reached the surface. we then went back to the salt mine entrance where our scheduled tour would start at 4.25pm.
At 4.25, our petite
tour guide appeared. In our initial briefing we learnt that the mine has ceased commercial operation as a mine and is UNESCO heritage listed. It was one of the world's oldest working mine until 2007. We also had to watch a safety video. The mine has 3 level. Our initial entry will be to the first of the levels via 54 flights of stairs.
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looking down the
stairwell of 54 flights |
The stairs were hewn out of polished wood. Everything inside the mine was made of wood.
When salt interacts with wood, it made wood stronger. The interior of the mine were supported by logs. You can almost taste the salt particles in the air even though this mine is no longer functioning. Apparently there are spas operating here in the re-purposed mine serving those with respiratory issues. May be that is why we had not cough once since entering the mine even though at times we had breathed heavily from the exertion of stairs climbing.
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| Exhibit of old mine mechanism |
on the machinery. Sweet water as opposed to super saturated
brine was a danger to the walls of the mine which were carved from salt themselves. Rock salt was extracted in pillars. Back then salt worth the same price as silver. In a world of no refrigeration, salt was the
only preserving ingredient.
A story associated with this mine was that of princess Kanga who became St Kanga at
some point. She had asked for a salt mine as her dowry from her father, the king. She then dropped her engagement ring into it to
claim it. Down the road, she recovered that ring when she asked her people to dig somewhere along the route she was travelling to her
husband. She used the example of her engagement ring to answer her father's question of how the salt would be
transported from where he gave it to her to where she would need the salt.
In the mines are several chapels and a huge cathedral, and two
pools spread over three levels (800 steps from the surface to the 3rd level, with 378 steps to the 1st
level). Most of the level were sufficiently tall for tall visitors to stand upright. Many of the support pillars were painted
white (to reflect open fires lamps so that it is brighter in the mine). Like all mines, methane gas release is a hazard. Since open flame lamps were used for lighting, there was a need to do methane flashes
to prevent explosions. To ensure sufficient ventilation, there are double doors at regular intervals along the tunnels to maintain the appropriate air pressure. We were advised to watch our fingers as we entered through one and exit to the other and to ensure that the one we entered was closed before we open the one we exit. The group observed the safety rules well.
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| Big retail room |
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| Supersaturated brine pool |
Spread throughout the mine now are several cafes and souvenir shops. The group had a short rest in
a restaurant area and shopping area in the middle of the tour. In this area, there were also several impressive sculptures carved from substantive. When we left this space, we entered a tunnel where there were other salt sculptures depicting historical scenes. The finding of the engagement ring by Princess Kanga, and miners doing methane flashing. There were also exhibits showing miners and their horses in the tunnels moving and mining salt, dewatering the mine, and feeding and watering the horses. Later the lines along the salt wall show where the miners started using machines in place of pick axes. There were several more salt sculptures before we descended the second set of stairs into the next level.
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| The first chapel |
There were more salt sculptures here. This second level was worked on from the beginning of the 19th Century. We visited our first of the underground chapels here. There are several spread through the mines for miners to pray in.
Hanging from the ceiling was a chandelier fashioned from salt crystals. The pace of the walking tour was quite fast. At one point one of our visitors lost a group member. We had heard her call out but did not think much of it as she and her husband has a young child with them. It turned out that she had taken a wrong turn we passed a junction. We were about to start a back track search when she appeared, having been redirected by another guide. We decided to keep an eye on her and started a conversation with them. They were from Kuala Lumpur. She was from Pondicherry but she has no accent as she went to a great Mission school there.
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| Overview of The Cathedral from gallery |
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Altar of the Cathedral
|
The grandest space in this level is the Cathedral with all its statues sculpted from salt pillars. We learnt that all the salt sculptures in the mine are not carved by professional artists but by the miners themselves. There were several grand rock crystal chandeliers. The higher than usual walls were all carved in salt. Religious and historical scenes as well as statues scattered through the cathedral. Even the floor was carved from salt to look like laid tiles. The Cathedral is an active one. Every Sunday morning, a Mass is held here.
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Grotto reflected
in 2nd supersaturated
brine pool
|
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| Beautiful sculptures from rock salt |
The Cathedral exit led us to the third level of the mine. At this level, there is a pool of supersaturated brine. There is a model of how machinery pulled cars filled with salt to the surface. We had come to the last large chamber of our tour route. The total length
of the tour was 3.5km. It took us around
3 hrs to complete the trip that covered barely
2% of the total length of tunnels in the mine (total = 287km). In this final chamber, we found a huge restaurant / space that was suitable for a grand ball. Beautifully decorated with yet more sculptures, the second super saturated pool is found here. Leaving this chamber to get to the elevator which we would take to the surface, we passed another chapel. This chapel was decorated with what looked like stained glass windows. They were salt crystal panels. This was followed by a section with murals to resemble an underpass in a typical town.
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| The second chapel |
The entire mine was presented as if it were a retail space or a museum by itself with featured attractions along the way. It has indeed been transformed into one where the exhibit is underground mining of soft rock. We were then 130m below the surface. We spent some time examining the beautiful wall and other areas around the chamber as there were many sub chambers attached to this massive one. .
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The way to the hidden
entrance of the
elevator |
We took a quick elevator to the surface, to find ourselves
behind the Church of St Clement that we had visited earlier.
Aha, we now realised that underlying that the entire town of Wieliczka is the salt mine itself.
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Michael whose nickname
in Polish means bear with me |
On the way back to Krakow, Michael introduced us to Tune In
Radio, an app that enables one to tune in to the radio anyway in the world digitally. Wow, that is a cool app. We will download later at the hotel. We chatted about Australia. He
said he would see us there in winter. This young man was eager to get home to see travel stuff on Croatia.
We dropped off near the railway station. We would pick up some snacks for the morning journey to Warsaw. It was still light so we decided to see if we can catch the dragon at the river bank breathing fire. We walked through the old city again all the way to Wawel Castle.
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Fire breathing
dragon outside
Wawel Castle wall |
At the dragon, a group of Spanish
girls trying to get a picture with a fire breathing dragon. Coincidentally, the dragon had spurted out fire momentarily when we got there. We had managed to capture that. There was an unpleasant guys who wanted to take a photo with the beauties and he was calling them chicken for not wanting to be photographed with him. Weirdo.
They consented after he tried that tactic several times on them. We thought that they should have asked him to beg since he was so rude and demanding. He did not even compliment them or thank them for the photo before he was showing off to his friends as if
he had won a trophy. What a jerk!! Unfortunately for them, their photographer did not manage to capture them with the
fire breathing dragon.
Wawel Castle was unfortunately closed for the night so we could get only external
night shots. The moon was already rising behind it. We wandered back through
the Market Square, Florian Gate and the Theatre before getting back
to the hotel. We did get some interesting night shots of that beautiful city.
Night photographs of the city will be published on Sylvia's Photos shortly.
Link : https://www.facebook.com/SylviaTanPhotography/
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