Wieliczka Salt Mine in Krakow, Poland

We took an excursion to Wieliczka Salt Mine. The mines were used for mining salt until the late 1990s, but they were open to tourism long before that. Each of the rooms were mined for salt, and then some miners carved statues out of salt after work hours.

Salt statues

The salt mines house the largest underground chapel. It has a hand carved altar and many reliefs in the walls, including a nativity scene and a copy of The Last Supper. Even the tile in the floor is hand carved, and the chandeliers are made from salt crystals. There is also a statue of the pope. The whole chapel was carved by only three miners, except for the statue of the pope, which was carved by a fourth.

St King's Chapel

Altar and salt crystal chandelier

Hand-carved relief of The Last Supper

Salt statue of the pope

The salt is surprisingly gray from impurities. Many people find it hard to believe that salt can be that gray, so they let you lick the walls to taste the salt.

Phil can verify that the mine walls were salty