Statistics
Wieliczka Salt Mine
Poland
Date of Inscription: 1978
Minor modification inscribed year: 2008 Criteria: (iv) Property : 968.6000 ha Buffer zone: 244.0000 ha City and County of Wieliczka, Lesser Poland (Malopolska) Voivodship N49 58 45.012 E20 3 50.004 Ref: 32bis |
|
Brief Description
This deposit of rock salt in Wieliczka-Bochnia has been mined since the 13th century. Spread over nine levels, it has 300 km of galleries with works of art, altars, and statues sculpted in the salt, making a fascinating pilgrimage into the past of a major industrial undertaking.
Statement of Significance
The salt mine in Wieliczka is a unique development in the history of mining, because the rock salt deposits were mined without interruption from the 13th to the end of the 20th centuries. The scale of excavation in this mine is very large, with corridors, galleries, and chambers, as well as underground lakes, totalling more than 200km in length on seven levels between 57m and 198m below ground. The largest collection of original tools and mining equipment illustrating the development of mining technology from the Middle Ages to modern times has been preserved here.
Not only was the Wieliczka salt mine a valuable economic raw material was mined, it also inspired the creation of exceptional works of art, such as chapels with altars and figures made of this atypical material.
Wieliczka attracted visitors because of its uniqueness and beauty almost from the beginning of its existence. The first tourist route was opened in the middle of the 19th century.
Criterion (iv): The Wieliczka salt mine reflects all the historic stages of development in mining techniques from the 13th to the 20th centuries, while the devices and tools preserved there document the old systems of working the deposits, drainage, lighting, and ventilation of the mine in a unique manner by world standards.
News
Links
View photos from OUR PLACE the World Heritage collection
If you have been to Wieliczka Salt Mine recently, please give us feedback through our partner TripAdvisor 
United Nations - Copyright © 1992-2009 UNESCO World Heritage Centre, All Rights Reserved | v3.0, Updated 22 Nov 2009
