Wieliczka Salt Mine

Miners have dug rock salt at Wieliczka since the 13th century, and over 700 years they turned the mine into an underground world — more than 300 kilometres of tunnels on nine levels reaching 327 metres down. Along the way they carved chapels, statues, and chandeliers entirely from salt, culminating in the breathtaking Chapel of St Kinga, a subterranean church whose altarpieces, reliefs of the Last Supper, and glittering crystalline chandeliers are all hewn from grey rock salt. Once one of the most valuable enterprises in medieval Europe — salt was 'white gold' — Wieliczka stopped commercial mining in 1996 and is now a UNESCO-listed museum descended by millions each year.