Kinga Chapel

What makes St. Kinga Chapel so remarkable is more than its grand size, its two staircases leading from its balcony to its patterned floor, its five chandeliers, statues, wall carvings, relief work and intricate altar. What makes his chapel unique is in its location - 101 meters below the surface of the earth and more than that its composition -100% rock salt.

This 17th century chapel is one of 2000 chambers in the salt mine of Wieliczka, Poland. Like most of the detailed carvings in the mine, it was created by ordinary miners, three of them, working one after the other over a period of seventy years. Over the course of 700 years, this still active mine has taken on enormous proportions. Today it penetrates to a depth of 327 meters and covers a surface area of 10 Km x 2.5 Km. It has lit passageways, a museum, even a snack bar, toilets and post office to make touring its depths easy. Our guide into its fascinating treasures was Dorota.

The beginning of our 2 1/2 hour tour was down 386 steps, each set of six ending at a platform where we turned to meet six more. "Look down through the railings," John said. He recalled his college days. "No bottle would make that fall successfully." I looked down through railing after railing, endless, into blackness. John was right, it was doubtful whether that bottle would have even made it to level one, our first stop, 62 meters down. We passed through our first heavy wooden door into a wood-lined tunnel. (Wood is used frequently as the salt air won't effect it.) Wooden doors like the first one blocked off section after section of corridor; when each was opened, we felt a wave of fresh air. "The air in the salt mine is good," Dorota told us, "better than on the surface. It is brought in through a special ventilation system." We were breathing salt air with iodine in it. "Very good for asthmatics." In fact, at 200 meters there is a health resort where patients under medical supervision are treated for bronchial asthma and respiratory diseases.

Everything around us was rock salt,"If you don't believe me,"Dorota said, "You can taste the walls. But please don't taste the statues or they won't last long." But with 600,000 visitors a years passing through these corridors, the thought of sticking my tongue anywhere lacked appeal. Some of the statues have already started to dissolve. One in front of the oldest chapel in the mine has a shiny hand where she has repeatedly been touched, two forms against the alter are barely distinguishable as people; vapor and time had taken their toll. But the statue of Kapurnikas before us was flawless, the workmanship amazing. "Kapurnikas once visited this mine and this statue was built in his honor," Dorota told us. He, like the other statues, was carved by ordinary miners in conditions less friendly than today. When work on the mine began, men were lowered down long shafts with ropes and woven harnesses. They used torches and manual equipment to extract the salt. When power tools were invented, these were used and in the 17th century horses were introduced to the mine to perform the job of hauling salt and turning the huge elevator gears. Today a faster method, using high pressure jets of water, is employed. "Over 20 million tons of salt has come from this mine since its beginning," Dorota explained. "Today we extract 80,000 tons of salt a year as table salt and industrial salt." All that work was taking place hundreds of meters below us.

Level Two also contains the elaborate Kinga Chapel. "I think you will agree with me that this is the most spectacular place underground that you will ever see." Dorota led us to the balcony and we looked into a massive room. Rare white salt was used for carvings of Mother Mary and Baby Jesus, salt crystals were used in the chandeliers. This chapel had been completed in 1964, and like the others in the mine, was built as a place the miners could say morning prayer. Kinga Chapel today is rented out to groups; Mass is performed here and it is often used to host weddings.

The third gallery level contains two man-made salt water lakes, complete with wave makers to produce the illuminated ripples of lights that undulate across the walls. A third lake is natural and all contain a 30% salt solution. "Enough salt that a person would float." Also on this level was the snack bar where we were given a 15 minute break. Appropriately John and I ate salt bagels.

We had reached 130 meters, the deepest level we would descend on our tour. Here we toured the museum with over eight large rooms full of information on the history of the mine. Ancient findings indicated that salt was extracted here much earlier than first believed. There is a geological exhibit on the properties of salt, the various crystal formations and color; and display cases of miner's equipment, some blanketed in salt crystals; and documents that the mine had been visited by presidents, great artists and the Pope. After 5 kilometers we came to the end of our tour. The only way to go from there was up. But we would not be walking the endless steps that brought us down, instead we would be whisked to daylight by mining elevators. Four elevators, stacked one on top of the other, each held nine passengers. We waited our turn and were squeezed into a metal box. A miner closed the door, we were encased in total darkness and in a swaying, rather stomach knotting pull we were hoisted electrically up to the surface.