A visit to the hidden tunnels and chambers of the famous Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland

The vast majority of the world's great monuments and historical sites are above ground, but in Poland there is a huge one underground.

The Chapel of Saint Kinga of Wieliczka: a spectacular underground church in Poland
Christ the King in Świebodzin, a huge monument to Jesus in western Poland

The Wieliczka Salt Mine began to be excavated in the 13th century near Krakow, in southern Poland. Today, this mine is world famous for the Chapel of St. Kinga, the largest underground church in the world (which I already told you about here), located 101 meters below ground. The temple, made entirely of salt, is dedicated to a 13th-century Polish saint who was the daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary and who was canonized by Saint John Paul II in 1999.

The Wieliczka Mine was excavated over 700 years and has over 290 kilometers of tunnels and more than 2,000 chambers. Currently, only a little over 3 kilometers of tunnels are open to the public, so most of the mine remains hidden most of the time. This week, the YouTube channel It's History published an interesting video touring spectacular parts of the mine that are closed to the public, accompanied by one of the people in charge of guarding this historic site:

You can see some screenshots from this video here, showing a small part of the rooms covered in this video. Here we see the Szyb Coriszewski (Coriszewski Shaft), one of the oldest shafts in the mine, which is not open to the public. It's difficult to find any references to this place online.

A picture of the shaft where the mine began to be excavated. From here, more corridors and levels began to emerge. Some tunnels still have wooden structures that are more than 400 years old.

A spectacular chamber that is closed to the public. It's one of the many chambers in the mine that aren't part of the tourist route. This chamber is almost 40 meters high and was excavated in the 17th century.

One of Wieliczka's most beautiful hidden chambers was built as a ballroom. It was excavated in 1831 and included a space to house the orchestra, as well as a memorial monolith commemorating Archduke Franz Karl of Austria (this part of Poland was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time). For a long time, this chamber was filled with rubble and was almost forgotten.