Wieliczka [antikvár]

The tradiUonal miners' blessing greets everybody who wishes to visit the subterranean labyrinth of the Wieliezka Salt Mine. The unique character and beauty of the mine was created by nature about twenty million years ago. The Wieliezka salt deposit was formed after the waters of a Miocene sea had evaporated, and its interesting geological structure is the result of the later uplift of the Carpathian Mountains: it is the block type in the upper stratum and the stratified type in the lower one. The Wieliezka Mine also boasts the largest known specimen of Miocene mineralogy: the Crystal Caves. The natural caverns 80 metres under the earth surface display brilliant halite crystals, their edges sometimes 50 centimetres long. The caves were discovered in the late nineteenth century; and they have lost some of the crystals (the largest set of crystals from the Wieliezka caves is to be found in Vienna, and weighs almost a ton), visitors are nevertheless spellbound by their beauty. The caves, which are about three kilometres away from the underground tourist route, are strictly protected, as one of the major attractions of the mine. Although the tradition of salt-mining in the vicinity of Wieliezka goes back about 5,000 years, that is to the Neolithic period, the archaeological evidence concerning settlement in the area does not suggest that the local population grew rich before the eleventh century. A significant development of Wieliezka took place between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries, which is corroborated by the charter granted to the settlement about 1289 by the Duke of Silesia and Cracow, Henry IV Probus. The Franconian law charter was confirmed and extended by Duke Przemyst II in 1290. Obtaining salt from brine must have been fairly developed as the brine well discovered near the present Daniiowicza Street is dated to the twelfth century. Surface salt springs must have become exhausted, which led to constructing wells and drawing up brine. This way of exploiting salt waters seems to have led to the discovery of rock-salt. The oldest known and located Goryszowski shaft, which began to mine rock-salt, was built in the second half of the thirteenth century. The continuous struggle of man with the nature of the Wieliezka deposit has been going on ever since. The Wieliezka Mine reflects the achievement of simple miners, of Polish kings and of eminent scientists which has taken seven centuries; it portrays the development of technology and labour, as well as the history of the microsociety which evolved around the oldest mining establishment in Europe. The Wieliezka Mine was always the property of the ruler who entrusted it to the loyal men or leased it out. The proceeds from salt under the Piast and Jagiellon kings provided almost 1/3 of the royal revenue. In the mid-fourteenth century King Casimir the Great codified the unwritten law of the country, which also meant that the rights of the miners who worked 'grey gold' became regulated by statute. The miners at Wieliezka slowly but steadily came to know the mine and discovered its secrets and abundance. The caverns left by mining salt were given timber supports, and