Wieliczka Salt Mine

A few miles out of Krakow is the Wieliczka Salt Mine, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It is 370 metres deep stretching down shafts and labrynth passages for 178 miles (the Museum part is only a very small section in comparison, but we still had to climb down 370 steps for the start of our tour!!).  The sculpture in rock salt is of Kazimierza Wielkiego - King Casimir III who reigned in the 14C and made his kingdom prosperous by paying much attention to the salt mining.  He also founded Krakow University modelled on the universities of Bologna and Padua. He died in 1370.  The museum includes sculptures, an underground lake, four chapels and many statues carved by the miners.  The mine produced sodium chloride (table salt) from Neolithic times to 2007. In WWII the Germans occupied the mine for the manufacture of armaments transporting thousands of Jews from the camps to work in their factory.

Extra photographs: one of some military personnel. There had been a dignitary visiting one of the buildings in the side street we had just walked up.  The second is of a starter for one person in a cafe, two of us shared it and it was still too much.  Fortunately I had chosen a light main course!!!