Inside an ancient Polish salt mine that has underground lakes, fully carved chapels, and chandeliers made of salt

Mia JankowiczMay 31, 2020, 14:27 IST

St. Kinga's Chapel in the Wieliczka Salt Mine.agsaz/Shutterstock

The ancient Wieliczka salt mine, begun in the 13th century, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The mine produced enormous wealth for Poland. But it also become a cultural treasure trove, filled with natural wonders like underground lakes and elaborate salt carvings.
The mine's caverns have been used to host royalty and world leaders as well as a world record attempt in underground ballooning.
Visitors can travel almost 450 feet down and wander through a portion of the mine's 152 miles of passageways.

The Wieliczka salt mine, near Krakow in southern Poland, is one of the world's oldest continually operating mines and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It has been mined since the 13th century.

The hollowed-out caverns left from digging have been transformed over the years into fairytale spaces: Great halls lit by salt chandeliers, chapels devoted to Polish saints, and walkways built to view underground lakes.

Many of the miners would become artists once they'd finished their dangerous work, carving intricate designs into the rock salt.

Continuous mining stopped in 1996, and it is now primarily a tourist venue. You can still visit the mine on walking tours that take you almost 450 feet underground.

Here's what you'll see if you visit Wieliczka salt mine.

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Inside an ancient Polish salt mine that has underground lakes, fully carved chapels, and chandeliers made of salt

Wieliczka Salt Mine is about 10 miles outside of Krakow, one of Poland's most historic cities. The building that houses the mine entrance is pretty modest compared to what's underground.

At a depth of 330 feet, one of the most impressive rooms you reach is St Kinga's chapel, complete with chandeliers and devotional carvings into the salt walls.

After descending a grand staircase, you arrive in a vast hall lined with wall carvings and an altar to St Kinga at one end.

St Kinga's chapel even features a version of Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" carved into a solid rock salt wall.

Here's a close-up of one of the salt chandeliers.

This salt-carved scene shows St Kinga. Legend says she asked for her wedding dowry in salt and miraculously made the mine appear at Wieliczka. Here, she is on the left, being presented with a lump of rock salt.

Just off the upper gallery at St Kinga's chapel, visitors can choose two routes: the miners' route, which gives a technical history of mining, and the more scenic tourists' route. The tourist route takes you down more than 800 steps.

It's very, very, very deep. Here is a view down the stairwell descending through one of the main shafts.

In the 19th century, though, the miners didn't have the luxury of a staircase. This engraving from the time shows the "devil's drop", which lowered miners down to the pit face by rope.

Miners at Wieliczka prayed before starting this dangerous work. This is a view of St Anthony's chapel, carved in the 17th century, just next to the descent. Pretty much everything you see here is carved out of sugar. Just kidding. It's salt.

Here's a view from below of some of the massive wooden support structures the miners built.

Here is a box crib passageway, the wooden structure miners would build to stop cave-ins.

One of the most awe-inspiring sights on your journey are the underground saline lakes. This romantic spot is a popular place for marriage proposals.

Lake Wessel is another of the lakes. The mine's proximity to underground salt water must be constantly managed and in 1993, the lowest levels of the mine — well below Lake Wessel — flooded completely.

Tourists were even visiting the lakes in the 19th century, as this engraving shows.

The underground water makes the air damp. Over time, this causes salt crystals to form everywhere, making stalactites and coating objects. Leave something down here long enough, and this is what it will end up like.

There are dioramas throughout, demonstrating mining history and techniques. Here, a method of extracting salt from saltwater is on display.

One of the caverns, the Stanisław Staszic chamber, is so large that it hosted a world record attempt for underground ballooning in 2000. Balloonist Krzysztof Rekas managed to float 7 feet off the cavern floor, 410 feet underground.

Salt carving continues in Wieliczka. When the Italian national soccer team was hosted in Wieliczka during the Euro 2012 championship, contemporary sculptors were commissioned to create gifts for the players.

Players also received soccer balls and boots carved out of salt.

The mines have had many honored guests. Here's the UK's Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, being shown round when they visited Poland in 2004.

The mine has also hosted important political summits. Second from the left here is Donald Tusk, the then-prime minister of Poland, welcoming the leaders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary to a meeting.

Salt from Wieliczka comes in several colors, including shades of green, grey and gold. Here, the sculptor has used a honey-colored rock salt to highlight baby Jesus in a nativity scene in St Kinga's chapel.