![]() ![]() Its listing is maintained by the National Heritage Board of Poland. ![]() The mine is one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments ( Pomniki historii), as designated in the first round, 16 September 1994. The Jews were transported to factories in Litoměřice (Czech Republic) and Linz (Austria). Part of the equipment was returned after the war, in autumn 1945. Some of the machines and equipment were disassembled, including an electrical hoisting machine from the Regis Shaft, and transported to Liebenau in the Sudetes mountains. However, manufacturing never began as the Soviet offensive was nearing. Kinga Park and had about 1,700 prisoners. The forced labour camp of the mine was established in St. ĭuring the Nazi occupation, several thousand Jews were transported from the forced labour camps in Plaszow and Mielec to the Wieliczka mine to work in the underground armament factory set up by the Germans in March and April 1944. Kinga had thus become the patron saint of salt miners in and around the Polish capital. The people found a lump of salt in there and when they split it in two, discovered the princess's ring. On arriving in Kraków, she asked the miners to dig a deep pit until they come upon a rock. She threw her engagement ring from Bolesław in one of the shafts before leaving for Poland. Her father King Béla took her to a salt mine in Máramaros. As part of her dowry, she asked her father, Béla IV of Hungary, for a lump of salt, since salt was prizeworthy in Poland. Ī legend about Princess Kinga, associated with the Wieliczka mine, tells of a Hungarian princess about to be married to Bolesław V the Chaste, the Prince of Kraków. This was due to the threat of serious damage being done to the sculptures from humidity caused by artificial ventilation introducted in the later 19th century. The mine was on the List of World Heritage in Danger from 1989 to 1998. In 1978 the Wieliczka Salt Mine was placed on the original UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. The mine features an underground lake, exhibits on the history of salt mining, and a 3.5-kilometre (2.2-mile) visitors' route (less than 2 percent of the mine passages' total length) including statues carved from the rock salt at various times. During World War II, the mine was used by the occupying Germans as an underground facility for war-related manufacturing. Over the period of the mine's operation, many chambers were dug and various technologies were added, such as the Hungarian horse treadmill and the Saxon treadmill for hauling salt to the surface. It is said that he turned a Poland of wood into a Poland of stone due to the great amount of wood from the neighbouring forests used as scaffolding and supports. In 1363 he founded a hospital near the salt mine. King Casimir III the Great (reigned 1333–1370) contributed greatly to the development of the Wieliczka Salt Mine, granting it many privileges and taking the miners under his care. ![]() Wieliczka is now home to the Kraków Saltworks Museum. From the late 13th to the early 14th century, the Saltworks Castle was built. In this period, wells began to be sunk, and the first shafts to be dug to extract the rock salt. Since the 13th century, brine welling up to the surface had been collected and processed for its sodium chloride (table-salt) content. The rock salt is naturally of varying shades of grey, resembling unpolished granite rather than the white crystalline substance that might be expected. The Wieliczka Salt Mine reaches a depth of 327 metres (1,073 ft), and extends via horizontal passages and chambers for over 287 kilometres (178 miles). Hungarian-type horse mill, late 18th century, in Komora Kraj (the Country Chamber) Composite of illustrations to a series of maps of the town and mines of Wieliczka engraved in 1645 by Willem Hondius. History Surface and underground views of the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Its attractions include the shafts and labyrinthine passageways, displays of historic salt-mining technology, an underground lake, four chapels and numerous statues carved by miners out of the rock salt, and more recent sculptures by contemporary artists. The Wieliczka Salt Mine is now an official Polish Historic Monument ( Pomnik Historii) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ĭue to falling salt prices and mine flooding, commercial salt mining was discontinued in 1996. Throughout its history, the royal salt mine was operated by the Żupy Krakowskie ( Kraków Salt Mines) company. The Wieliczka salt mine, excavated from the 13th century, produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world's oldest operating salt mines. The Wieliczka Salt Mine ( Polish: Kopalnia soli Wieliczka) is a salt mine in the town of Wieliczka, near Kraków in southern Poland.įrom Neolithic times, sodium chloride ( table salt) was produced there from the upwelling brine. Wieliczka Salt Mine (Poland) Show map of Poland ![]()
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