Wieliczka Salt Mine

The Wieliczka Salt Mine excavated from the 13th century, produced table salt continuously until 2007, as one of the world’s oldest operating salt mines. Commercial salt mining was discontinued in 1996 owing to falling salt prices and mine flooding. The Wieliczka Salt Mine is now an official Polish Historic Monument (Pomnik Historii). Its attractions include the shafts and labyrinthine passageways, displays of historic salt-mining technology, an underground lake, four chapels and numerous statues carved by miners out of the rock salt, and more recent sculptures by contemporary artists.