To the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá

Today the four us hired a taxi and visited the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, an underground church built inside a salt mine and made entirely of salt. The cathedral is located about 600 feet underground in a former salt mine in Zipaquirá, just outside Bogotá.

It was an amazing experience to see the Roman Catholic icons carved out of salt and the enormous floor-to-ceiling cross illuminated with purple lights.

The Salt Cathedral has a fascinating history. Initially, miners prayed in a small sanctuary built inside the caverns where they would pray to the Virgin of the Rosary of Guasá, the patron saint of miners, to protect them from toxic gases, explosions and other accidents. That first sanctuary was built in the 1930s. After extracting salt, the miners left in their wake a vast network of grottoes, pits and passageways. Retired mining engineer Jorge Castelblanco says most exhausted mines are simply abandoned and sealed up. But Zipaquirá's miners and church officials persuaded the Colombian government to convert the empty spaces into a church in 1953.

It was an unforgettable experience to visit this architectural wonder and learn about its history.Читать далее