Wieliczka Salt Mine of Poland part-2
This the second of two articles on the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland. The primary appeared in Challenge [51] and coated a few of the highlights that may be seen there. This one covers some extra of those options, but additionally offers with the geology of the positioning.
The journey started within the Miocene interval, which was about 13.5mya, when the crystallisation of salt dissolved in sea water occurred. These salt deposits mixed with rocks that usually accompany salt that occupied what was generally known as the Pre-Carpathian Sink. Subjected intensively to the tectonic course of, these salt deposits shifted and folded. About 6,000 years in the past, the native folks of Wieliczka in Poland began to supply salt by evaporating salty water.
Within the thirteenth century, when the sources of the salty water had been virtually exhausted, they started to sink wells hoping to seek out salty water below the bottom. In 1289, on the backside of one of many wells, the primary lump of the gray rock salt was discovered and that was the start of the Wieliczka Salt Mine. Immediately, the mine is split into two parts. Whereas its higher stratum is the block kind, its decrease stratum is of the stratified kind; and guests study salt, its excavation and kinds as they stroll with their designated guides throughout chambers, pathways, tunnels, chapels and lakes.
Within the olden days, the tools to move salt from one degree to a different included picket carts and trolleys. At Wieliczka, these are nicely conserved as a result of salt has preserved the wooden by coating it. Nonetheless, salt corrodes metallic and, to gradual the corrosion down, the wheels of the trolleys have been coated with tar. Actually, the salt mine has a singular assortment of authentic miner’s tools.
4 hundred years in the past, the primary horses had been taken into the mine. The final horse, known as Baska, left the mine in 2002. In most of Europe, ponies had been used however, on this mine, horses had been (Fig. 1). They lived and labored underground and had been used as a counterbalance for a block of salt. Patrycya (our information) defined how 4 or eight horses had been used to function the winch, by strolling across the vertical drum to wind the rope round it to elevate salt weighing as much as a tonne. The largest blocks of salt got a cylindrical form to roll them, because it was tough to elevate and cargo them on trolleys.
To take away water, pumps had been used (Fig. 2). Water is harmful for the mine as a result of it dissolves the salt. There was a system of picket pipes and totally different sorts of water pumps. The chain of a water pump known as ‘Our Father’ resembles a rosary to wish because the miners had been very spiritual and so they prayed lots for security within the underground chapels. On our tour, we headed subsequent to the St Anthony’s Chapel of the mine, which is the oldest preserved underground chapel. St Anthony is the patron saint of searchers and ore miners.
There are 20 chapels within the Wieliczka Salt Mine of Poland and, prior to now and since it was moist, water dissolved a few of the decorations within the chapels. Within the Holy Cross Chapel, water has dissolved the options of the praying monks’ statues, that are product of salt. The statues of Our Girl the Victorious (Fig. three) and Christ Crucified (Fig. four) are nicely preserved, as a result of they’re product of wooden and salt conserved them by forming a protecting coating. Even the constructions constructed to assist the ceiling, that are product of wooden, have been naturally preserved by salt.
The primary miners used pine wooden to construct their constructions as a result of it made quite a lot of noise as it might creak. This was the time when electrical energy had not but been invented and the miners couldn’t see the tunnels and chambers very nicely with out mild. Nonetheless, after they heard the noise of the splintering wooden, they knew that one thing was fallacious and that the development was weakening. Fairly often they painted the wooden white with lime wash for fireplace safety and to mirror candle mild.
Contained in the chapels and the reception halls, there are chandeliers which have salt crystals resembling glass. The interiors of the chapels are lit by these chandeliers, which had been product of wooden within the late nineteenth century. The largest and grandest chapel of the Wieliczka Salt Mine is St Kinga’s Chapel (Fig. 5), which was erected in 1896. Kinga, who was a Hungarian princess and the daughter of Bela IV, King of Hungary, is believed to have made salt abundantly out there in Poland. She was canonized in 1999 by Pope John Paul II.
It took 67 years to finish the decorations of this chapel. Solely three miners carved the decorations. Even as we speak, providers are carried out on Sundays, Christmas and Easter. Marriage ceremony ceremonies and live shows happen as nicely (Fig. 6). The stable salt ground has a sample carved by the miners. The salt carvings of the final supper and turning water into wine are spectacular. Each of the intricate carvings are 17cm deep. Carving in salt shouldn’t be simple, as salt figures simply collapse. The crib, which has child Jesus, is made out of salt from central Poland.
All the images are by Khursheed Dinshaw.
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