Slănic Prahova Salt Mine

The Unirea mine at Slănic was worked from the 1930s and closed to extraction in the 1970s, leaving behind fourteen chambers whose scale is difficult to convey: the walls rise in the trapezoidal profile that salt mining produces, ceilings stand some fifty to sixty metres overhead, and the floor area runs to tens of thousands of square metres. A lift takes visitors down over two hundred metres in a couple of minutes. Inside are salt sculptures, including busts and a relief of Decebalus carved into a wall, a chapel, a small museum and areas for children, plus benches where people sit for hours breathing the air for respiratory conditions. The scale rather than the decoration is what makes it worth the trip. Above ground, Slănic has salt lakes formed in collapsed old workings, including the Baia Baciului, where the water is dense enough to float in easily.

What you actually see

• The great chambers - trapezoidal halls with ceilings fifty metres and more overhead.
• Salt carvings - sculptures and reliefs cut into the walls.
• The lift descent - a rapid drop of over two hundred metres.
• Surface salt lakes - dense buoyant water in collapsed old workings.

When to go

Year-round, with a constant underground temperature around twelve degrees. Summer weekends and school holidays are very busy. The surface lakes are a summer attraction. The mine closes on some public holidays and for maintenance.

Honest expectations

It is cold underground and the lift queues can be long in season. The mine is a leisure and health destination rather than a heritage site, with limited interpretation of the mining history. The town of Slănic is run down. Photography is difficult in the low, even lighting.

Nearby

Ploiești lies south; the Prahova valley resorts and Bucegi are west.