Krysztalowy Swiat company collaborates with Wieliczka Salt Mine and with the underground sanatorium in Wieliczka. The knowledge of many generations has helpt us to create solutions such as salt rooms, salt chambers and salt caves, salt plates and salt interior arrangements.

Wieliczka Salt Mine that is one of the most famous mines in the world has its beginning in the Middle Ages. For the first time it´s mentioned in a document from 1044, where Wieliczka is called "magnum sal alias Wieliczka", the great salt.

At this time salt was the main source of income for Poland. Earlier the common money had been replaced with bites of salt. At first it was obtained from salt springs and we don´t know when people of Poland began to extract rock salt here. Probably the first salt bed was founded by accident .

In course of time salt became an essential source of income. In the XIV-th century the salt mine provided the king´s court and a lot of king´s castles which were built along trading tracts.

The mine´s activity was defined by a polish king Kazimierz Wielki, in 1368, in a document known as Kazimierz law. In this law rights and duties of different mine workers and civil servants was defined, as well as prices if the salt. Especial king´s commissions controlled the mine´s condition, regularity of clearings with the state and gave indications. In the XVI-th century the salt mine became one of the greatest European undertakings, with increasing number of physical and administration workers.

In the middle of the XV-th century thanks to the mine´s incomes the king´s castle Wawel was rebuilt and enlarged. At the same time the salt mine was deepened because bigger salt beds was searched. The king´s administration in the mine stopped in 1772 when Poland´s first partition took place. During Austria´s administration new methods of extracting salt were introduced and it was a period of stabilization, the mine´s condition was positively effected. Wieliczka developed also during this time. Near the mine an electric power station was set in motion, and railway was built between Wieliczka and Krakow. The underground working was mechanized. Hand drills were replaced with pneumatic drills, a salt mill and a steam hoisting machine were set in motion. Some repair shops and joineries were built. In 1912 a new mechanized saline on the earth´s surface was built and it exists still here and produces evaporated salt.

Between the world wars the mine developed also as a medical center and a tourist destination. The healing properties of the salt was mentioned by the humanists in the XV-th century for the first time. They thought that salt, mixed with other substances, could heal snake bites, eczema, ulcers, angina, gout and many other illnesses. Healing with salt baths in the XIX-th century was connected with Wieliczka, where already in 1826 this method was developed. Thanks to the mine doctor , Feliks Boczkowski, the first bath establishment with salt baths arose in Wieliczka. In this place, the patients were cured from 36 different illnesses: from cold to sterility and from hysterics to veneric illnesses. The healing with salt baths stopped after dr Boczkowski´s death in 1855. The revival of this idea took place in 1958 on prof Mieczyslaw Skulimowski´s initiative (he founded the underground sanatorium). The healing was based on the specific microclimate from the salt mine, that cured people from asthma, bronchitis or allergy. The time after the Second World War was a very bad period for the salt mine. Exploitation of the central areas in the mine caused unbalance in the rock mass and the tourist track was in danger. As a result of the very bad condition of some chambers along the tourist track, the first protecting works started in the mine. At first they were financed by the Ministry of Culture, and later from an especial fund for protection of the Wieliczka Salt Mine.

The recommendation for "Krysztalowy Swiat" Company from the Salt Mine Museum in Wieliczka.