Sent: 2/4/2016
Arrived: 19/4/2016
Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines
UNESCO site
Date of Insscription: 1978
The Wieliczka and Bochnia salt mines are located on the same
geological rock salt deposit in southern Poland. Situated close to each other,
they were worked in parallel and continuously from the 13th century until the
late 20th century, constituting one of the earliest and most important European
industrial operations.
The two mines include a large ensemble of early galleries
which extend to great depths. The residual excavations have been altered, and
made into chapels, workshops and storehouses, etc. A substantial ensemble of
statues and decorative elements sculpted into the rock salt has been preserved
in both mines, along with an ensemble of tools and machinery. An underground
tourist route has existed since the early 19th century.
The two mines, which over a long period were combined as one
company with royal status (Kraków Saltworks), were administratively and
technically run from Wieliczka Saltworks Castle, which dates from the medieval
period, but has been rebuilt several times in the course of its history.
Criterion (iv): The Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines
illustrate the historic stages of the development of mining techniques in
Europe, from the 13th to the 20th centuries. The galleries, the subterranean
chambers arranged and decorated in ways that reflect the miners’ social and
religious traditions, the tools and machinery, and the Saltworks Castle which
administered the establishment for centuries, provide outstanding testimony
about the socio-technical system involved in the underground mining of rock
salt.
Source: unesco.org
Thank you Mary!
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