European Van Trip 2022

I went here when I was 16 and always tell people it's one of the coolest places I've ever been, so I was almost nervous to go back after bigging it up SO much to Brace incase it was a let down. But nope, even better than I remembered actually.

It's just an incredibly beautiful, impressive and interesting place. One of the first UNESCO world heritage sites, along with Kraków it's neighbouring city, interestingly Kraków was entirely funded by the salt mined from Wieliczka.

Initially owned by the crown it was very profitable, salt of course used to be currency, valuable especially due to its ability to preserve meat and food.

There are over 3000km of trails in the mine, many chapels and places of worship, minors would pray before beginning work and again at the end of the day to thank god for allowing them to see the light of day once more.

The most impressive and recognisable part of the mine is the huge church with the many chandeliers. The entire place (and it is huge and very intricately carved in so many ways) was actually carved from one single rock. Incredibly it was in fact done mainly by one man, single handedly!! He was just an ordinary miner who the boss recognised as being talented, so asked him to do some more decorative pieces which led to what you see in the pictures, when he finished his brother took over and then another 2 men. The brothers Dad was also a miner 😊

The chandeliers are also made of salt, and basically every carving and statue in all the photos is salt. The ones that look darker are around 97% purity (up to over 99%) the slight impurity gives it the darker colour, but when you shine a torch close on it you can see all the crystals and that it is indeed salt not rock!

Some of the old wonders down there have of course dissolved, nowadays they have a system to ensure the air is kept right, which actually just is keeping a lot of doors closed (as in you all walk into one section of corridor and then close the door behind you before entering the next) and air being extracted up to earth.

There are huge sections of liquid in the mines where boats used to transport the salt and various other reasons, but it isn't water, its saturated brine, meaning it doesn't moisten the air and damage the salt.

Well I could ramble on. But you could just go yourself 😊Les mer