Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines
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How it came to be
At Wieliczka near Kraków in southern Poland, salt was made from upwelling brine from Neolithic times. The first record of the mine is a privilege of 1044, and in the 13th century wells were sunk and the first shafts dug for rock salt. The Wieliczka and Bochnia mines were long run together as a single royal company, the Kraków Saltworks.
King Casimir III the Great developed the mine and in 1363 founded a hospital near it. Worked-out chambers became chapels and workshops, and miners carved statues and altars from the rock salt. An underground visitors' route has existed since the early 19th century.
During the Second World War the German occupiers set up an armaments factory in the mine and used Jewish prisoners as forced labour. Mining ended in 1996. The site was among the first inscribed, in 1978, and was on the danger list from 1989 to 1998 because humidity was damaging the carvings.
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