Testimony - Are you as passionate as a salt miner?

Deep underground in Poland lies something remarkable but little

known outside Eastern Europe . For centuries, miners have extracted salt

there, but left behind things quite startling and unique. Take a look at the

most unusual salt mine in the world.

From the outside, Wieliczka Salt Mine doesn’t look extraordinary.

It looks extremely well kept for a place that hasn’t mined any salt for

over ten years but apart from that it looks ordinary. However, over two

hundred meters below ground it holds an astonishing secret. This is the salt

mine that became an art gallery, cathedral and underground lake.

 

Situated in the Krakow area, Wieliczka is a small town of close to twenty thousand inhabitants. It was founded in the twelfth century by a local Duke to mine the rich deposits of salt that lie beneath. Until 1996 it did just that but the generations of miners did more than just extract. They left behind them a breathtaking record of their time underground in the shape of statues of mythic, historical and religious figures. They even created their own chapels in which to pray.

Perhaps their most astonishing legacy is the huge underground cathedral they left behind for posterity. 

For more information you can go to the following website:

http://www.kopalnia.pl/site.php?action=site&urlMain=2,26,1,853,,&&id_site=26&level=853