The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-09-04
THE WORLDS sTRANaEsT CITY
A Thousand Years Of Toll Have
Honeycombed Out Of Solid Salt
r.. an Entire City.


ument of human labor than Wielicka's
underground city, when in the course
of ages the earth, one would like to
know what it is and where it may be
found. An out-of-t the world place this
in the quiet Carpathian Valley Of the
Vistula, some miles off the Cracow-
Lemberg railroad in Austrian Poland.
For ever since railroads came into
the world these peasants refused to
permit them near, fearing lest tho
vibration should cause the upper earth
to fall in upon those strange, crystal,
sparkling streets a thousand feet
in the earth, with their little horse
railroads, drawn by congenitally blind
animals, who may be said never to
have been Gin the world' at all, as
we know it. The origin Of the rock:solt
mines of Bonchina and Wielicka is
lost in the mists Of antiquity They
are certainly known as early as the
reign Of Bella " of Hungary, in 1852.
During the Tartar invasions they were
somewhat neglected, but they were
restored to fresh activity by immigrant
Hungarians from across the border in
the time Of st. Klinga.
One thousand years Of patient hu-
man toll have honey~combed out of the
solid salt crust Of the earth an entire
city at various levels. 1t consists of
an intricate congerieS Of winding
streets and dim, Scintillating alleys of
pillared church: diamond and ruby
StalrcaSeS. restaurants. railroad sta
tlons, shrines. statues monuments and
n thousand other wonders--all rough
when in the hard. sparkling rock salt
crystals, which. lii by electric lights,
pine torches. magnesium flashes or
thousands Of candles, fairly blaze a
world Of precious stones.
The Salt City is not only difficult
of access. but the Austro-Ilungarian
Government it is State property
most jcalously guards it; and all
workmcn are searched several times a
day, lest they should be tempted to
conceal fragments of rock salt upon
tllcll l'cISbllS. u Is NOT FtcaI WHY
mere salt should he considered so
precious, but the Face rcmrinS that all
workers are searched as jcaiously as
the Kaffirs in the diamond mines of
Kimberley.
The entrance is il long, low, ordin-
ary--looking building, containing the
administration officers Of the mines,
and also small museum of paleonto-
logical curiositics, found deep down in
remote reccsscs. Elevators descend
the abysses leading to this wondrous
city, though many visitors prefer to
go down by the long, massive staircase
hewn in the solid salt, which flashes
emerald and ruby rays at every step.
One naturally asks why an entire
Getty" was hewn in the salt, more es-
pecially the pillarel cathedrals, the
altars, statues, and the like. And one
learns, naturally enough, that all
this patient work chiseled out during
centuries, is in the nature OF votlve
offering from grateful men, whom the
salt has yielded what will seem to us
mere abject pittancc, ranging from
five cents to twenty-five cents day
The salthewn cathedral of st. An
thony dates from the seventeenth cen
tury, and was projected by pious
foreman. Galician miners are deeply
religious people. They have their own
minister of religion in the depths, and
touching prayer services with weird
music arc held in their rock salt
churches Also they have their own
band for festive occasions.
The high altar in the salt "catho-
dral" is cunningly adorned with
twisted pillars, and il is thanked by
salthcwn statues of st. StamslauS
and St. Clement On the altar steps
are carved in ruby-rcd rock salt cf-
figuies of two kneeling monks, and IN
tho background Of the altar is huge
salt crucifix, before which stands the
Virgin placing the infant Jesus in
St. Anthony's arms. This, the most
extraordinary church in all the world,
contains salt-hewn pulpit, support
cd by salt statues Of St. Peter and St.
Paul, and in niche below stands a
glistening statue of the good King,
Augustus II.
I. Emulation must have been the Sc
! cret of all this gigantic work. 1t seems
that no sooner was the first shrine
chiseled in salt, the first statue carv-
. cd. than succeeding generations OF