The Wieliczka Salt Mine is known as ‘the underground cathedral of Poland.`This is because an entire city has been carved out of its very walls. Over the years, legions of anonymous workers carved bits of their workplace into everything they could think of, from saints to gnomes. Starting in the late 19th century, three miners decided to etch out a whole chapel as well, to the patron saint of mining, St. Kinga. It took them sixty-eight years.Salt used to be as valuable as silver. First evidence of this mine’s existence comes from 1044 A.D., and tourists have been recorded since the 15th Century - including Poland’s premier astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus. The twists and turns of the mine – only three percent of which tourists can access - stretch for two hundred kilometers, and go as far as three hundred meters underground. Some of the tunnels are so wide that they were used as airplane factories by the Nazis.Buried beneath one of the most Catholic countries on the planet, the mine also has restaurants, bars, and a formal dance area that is great for weddings. And lest you ever forget where you stand, even the chandlers are dripping with salt.