La Catedral de Sal

On my last trip to Colombia, I was lucky enough to have some extra time to visit a salt mine in the town of Zipaquira, just outside of Bogota. Zipaquira is a very colonial looking town that has an autonomous economy due to the salt mine located there. The special thing about this salt mine is that they have built an incredibly large cathedral in the mine - 200 meters below ground!

Keeping in mind that this is a salt mine, so everything is salty. The walls mostly look like rock, but where there is water, you actually see the salt crystals forming. Like on this wall:

Around 1932, workers in the mine carved their own sanctuary out of the rock as a place for daily prayers. Eventually, it was decided to create a larger salt cathedral in the mine around 1950. Apparently you could drive your car right up into this cathedral to attend services. But, the engineers did not factor in what the vibrations of cars would do to the structure. Therefore, it ended up lasting only about half as long as was originally projected. This cathedral was shut down around 1990 and then collapsed about 3 years later. (Good call on shutting it down!)

In 1991, construction of a new cathedral began about 200 feet under the old one. This is the one that I visited...obviously...

Once you enter the mine, you begin walking past 14 cross stations. The stations are places where the rock has been mined to the max and they cannot mine that area anymore or risk structural instability. In each station a cross has been carved in the salt/stone. These stations represent the the events of Jesus' last journey. Examples include Jesus being condemned to death, Jesus falling, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. At each station there was an intricately carved cross and usually kneeling stands for people to pray. Again, it's all done in the salt rock - aka halite.

After the 14 stations you come to the main cathedral, complete with 3 naves. This is Daniella and I in the choir loft of the main nave.

View from above of the main nave. It is massive!

Overall it is an amazing feat of architecture, art, and culture. Definitely a journey worth making if you ever find yourself in Bogota. And of course, I couldn't resist...

 -Amber