Sydney’s Corner: Wieliczka Salt Mine

Today you will learn about the salt mines of Krakow, Poland.

I suppose you want to hear the legend of how the salt mines were found. Okay so there was once a Princess who was named Kinga.  She was going to marry the King of Krakow.  She wanted to give the King of Krakow a lump of salt.  Kinga’s dad gave her a salt mine in Hungary.  She threw her ring in the mine and went to Poland.  In Poland, she asked the miners to dig a pit.  Then they found a cube of salt and they split it.  They found her ring in the cube of salt and the salt mine of Wieliczka.

The salt mines have been in operation for a long time, 700 years.  Did you know they used horses in the salt mines?  The horses used for the salt mines rarely saw daylight, because it was too hard to bring them up.  So, they had an idea.  They built stables underground in the salt mines.

The salt mines were a dangerous place to work in. Cave-ins happened a lot in the salt mines.  It was also easy to start a fire. The chances were that you were going to die.  Even though a lot of the salt miners died, people still wanted to work at the salt mines.  It was a privilege to work there, because you would become rich easily.  During medieval ages salt was very precious.  One kilo of salt was worth ½ kilo of gold.  I would want to be a salt miner if I was boy.

The salt mines were pretty awesome, because there are salt statues.  There is a chapel in the salt mines that is totally made out of salt.  They had a picture of the “Last supper” in salt.  I liked the chandeliers because I never seen a salt chandelier before.  I made sure the walls were really salt because I licked it.  It tasted like salt.

Facts about the Wieliczka Salt Mines

•  The salt can be colorful.  It can be black, white, clear, and orange.
• Salt was very hard to get in medieval ages so it sold for a lot.
• Salt miners were rich.
• The mine has an underground lake.
• The mines were built in the 13^th century
• You go 64 meters down to get to the salt mines. That is deep.
• There are 380 stairs to get to the salt mines. When you go up to the surface you take the lift.
• Only boys could work in the salt mines.

Now you know all about Wieliczka salt mines