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Global Treasures 43442



Wieliczka Salt Mine

 Film Details

 Synopsis

 : Global Television
 Episode Number: 43442
 Title: Wieliczka Salt Mine
 Languages: E De
  10 Mins
 Produced: 2019

Come along on an enchanting tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine, the oldest active salt mine in Europe, located near to the former historical Polish capital of Krakow. Built 700 years ago, the mines created through the salt mining form a labyrinth of over 300 miles of underground passageways and chambers.

Discover the intriguing history of the mine. As legend has it, Wieliczka's salt was to serve as the dowry for the daughter of the Hungarian King Bela, when she was due to be married. Back at the beginning, the miner’s work was exhausting and dangerous, and this was also true for the 100 horses that lived in the mine, providing a laborious transport system for the extracted salt.

Learn how salt was broken down and transported back through the tunnels and up to the surface. And see the salt chapels built by the highly religious miners within the mine’s depths. The incredible highlight is when you see the majesty of a cathedral, made entirely of salt.

Now a wooden staircase leads deeper into a next chamber, at the bottom of which a small lake can be seen. The lighting here makes everything look like a scene from a fairytale. In the Salt Mine Museum, marvel at a selection of salt-coated objects and exceptionally shaped salt crystals, all created by the slow crystallisation of the salt from the mine.

For all it’s mystical beauty, this place continues to be a dangerous place to work today. Yet, salt extraction has been entrenched in the life of this area now for 5,000 years. The WIELICZKA Mine is a sunken world, an Atlantis made of salt, created by nature and by man, at once magnificent and mysterious.