When I went to Open House in London a few years ago, I visited Salters’ Hall. This is owned by The Salters’ Company, one of over a hundred livery companies in the City of London. These livery companies are a type of professional association that originated in the 12th Century in London. They represented people working in various trades/industries, such as salt, textiles, and chemicals. The livery companies made sure that members were trustworthy and qualified. They also cared for their members in sickness and old age. Many of the professions no longer exist. However, some maintain links with those existing trades or the modern equivalent. Many now have philanthropic aims.
It may seem strange to us today that an organisation would exist to care for people working in the salt trade. At the time, before refrigeration, salt was used to preserve food, such as meat, fish, and butter. Controlling salt meant influencing the food supply. It gave these organisations power.
Near Kracow, there is the Wieliczka Salt Mine. It started operating 700 years ago. Working in the mine was a dangerous but well-paid job. The mine stopped operating in 1996 when salt prices fell. But the mine is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Over a million people visit it every year.
I took a bus to the salt mine in the morning. I’d booked a place on a tour a week ago because tickets sell out quickly. Everything was well organised. There were tours in multiple languages and people joined the queue for their language.
We were given a small device and single-ear headphones. The group was large and the headphones would allow us to hear the tour guide, who spoke into a microphone. This mostly worked. Sometimes, however, you’d be quite far back and couldn’t see what the guide was talking about. Given the number of groups in the mine — and sometimes quite close to each other — the headphones were necessary.
We descended about 135m below ground level using steps. It took about 2½ hours to walk the 3½ km.
Our tour guide, looking quite stern, spoke from the back of her throat. She was friendly enough with a dry sense of humour. At one point there was a “firework” display — some lights went on and off for a few seconds. This emulated the risky nature of salt mining, especially if certain combustible gases were in the air. At the end of the display, she asked if anyone was injured.
It wasn’t a case of salt deposits here and there. The whole mine was made of salt. The salt didn’t look white but grey, resembling granite. It was slippery too.
The salt mine over the years became so central that chapels were added in the mine, one of which, the Chapel of St Kings, is huge and still in use today. The bas-relief wall carvings from the New Testament, like everything else, was made from salt.
Horses were used to transport the salt within the mine. Since it was difficult to take the horses down, once underground, they remained there. Stables were built to look after them.
Scattered throughout the mine are statues of various people, such as the Polish Pope John Paul II and Copernicus, who apparently was the mine’s first tourist. Like the chapel, all the statues are made from salt. Some were created by professional artists but quite a few were carved by ex-miners.
We had to queue to exit the mine. But the lift was quick ascending. On the way to the bus stop, I passed through a park with a statue of Pope John Paul II. I sat and ate some fruit and sandwiches.