MONDAY 10 APRIL 2017

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Cluj Napoca, RO – Turda, RO – Cluj Napoca, RO
Travel Camino Home Aparthotel, Cluj NapocaTurda Salt Mine, Turda
Turda Salt Mine, Turda
Franz Joseph Transportation Gallery, Turda Salt Mine, Turda

The transportation gallery has a total length of 917 metres, with a surface of the useful are of 4.8 sq m. The tunnel was carved in 2 stages, to facilitate the transportation of salt to the warehouses in the Turda Nouă area. Between 1853 and 1871 the first 780 metres of the tunnel were carved and the by the end of the 19th century the length of the gallery was extended by by a further 137 metres, reaching its final length of 917 metres.

The gallery crosses its first 526 metres through a sterile section (clay layers). This section of the tunnel was reinforced with a 40 cm thick stone wall. the length of the tunnel is marked on its left side with stone plates pitched at every 10 fathoms (1 fathom = 1.89635m). The electric system was installed in 1910.

Following the shutdown of the mine in 1932 the gallery, as well as the chambers were used as a refuge ground by the citizens of Turda during the World War II, and later, between 1948-1992, the tunnel and the chambers were used to store “telemea”, a Romanian specialty cheese.

Staircase of the Rich, Turda Salt Mine, Turda
The Elevator, Turda Salt Mine, Turda
Theresa Mine Balcony, Turda Salt Mine, Turda
Theresa Mine, Turda Salt Mine, Turda

It is the oldest chamber that can be visited within the Turda Salt Mine ensemble (an isolated, bell shaped mine). Exploitation of salt in this particular chamber started in 1690 and ended in 1880, and during this period salt was extracted using the downward horizontal slicing method. Salt blocks were cut from the base of the mine (underhand stoping). After the extraction of salt from this mine ceased, it was used as a disposal chamber for the rejected and unusable salt blocks resulted from the extension works of the Franz Joseph gallery. After the base of the mine was flooded and underground lake was formed, with a “salt island” in the middle of the lake. The base of the mine is located at a depth of 112 m below the surface, respectively 90 m below the shafts in the arch of the extraction hall. The diameter of the base of the mine, in the NE-SW direction, is 75 m. the base of the mine is covered by a lake with a maximum depth of 8 m, which was formed due to the build-up of infiltration water. The concentration of salt in the water is 260 g/l.

Rudolph Mine, Turda Salt Mine, Turda

The opening works at the Rudolph mine started after 1854, at the same time when the opening works at the Giselle mine and the carving of the Franz Joseph gallery were carried out. Its name was given in the honour of Rudolph, Prince of Austria (21.08.1858 – 30.01.1889). After 1924 the chamber was renamed to “Saint Nicholas” due to legislation changes implemented that year.

The chamber has a parallelepipedal shape. In the middle of the 19th century, salt exploitation using parallelepipedal chambers was considered far superior to the traditional bell shaped type mine (see the Theresa Mine). In order to increase the stability of the mine against the large pressure exerted by the rocks in the roof of the mine, the upper level of the chamber was cut to a trapezoidal shape. The salt was extracted using the downward horizontal slicing method. Salt blocks were cut from the base of the mine (underhand stoping). The base has a length of 85 m, it is 50 m wide, while the depth of the mine from the elevator is 40 m.

Access into the mibe was ensured by means of two access chambers with pine-wood stairways, including 13 resting bridges. At each bridge the year the respective level was reached is carved into the wall. In 2009 a panoramic elevator was installed.

The underground carst includes a curtain of stalactites formed on the northern side of the roof, due to the slow infiltration of water.

The extraction of slat from this chamber continues until 1932, when the Turda Salt Mine was shut down.

Theresa Mine Lake, Turda Salt Mine, Turda
The Roll Call Room, Turda Salt Mine, Turda

When the Rudolph and Gisela mines were open the existing cone type chambers were used. From the southern extraction shaft of the Theresa mine an horizontal gallery with a length of 10 fathomes (approximately 19 m) was carved, then a descending shaft to the Franz Joseph transportation gallery, which was later extended down to the sublevel from where the opening of the transverse gallery of the Rudolph mine was started and to the access bridge at the northern area of the Theres mine where the opening of the Gisela mine was started.

In order to prepare the connection to the transportation gallery, the descending shaft was enlarged to the level of the future galleries, which resulted in the creation of an underground chamber.

Since access into and out of the mine was made through this relatively confined space, the room was perfect place to keep track of people entering and leaving the Rudolph mine. This is why it was call the “roll call room”.

The altar was sculpted in salt for religious services and prayers before the miners started their shift. Once a week a religious service conducted by a priest was held here, where leaders of the mine, but also the nobility from the area used to take part in.

The Extraction Well Hall, Turda Salt Mine, Turda

The extraction shaft room of the Rudolph mine is a utility room that hosts a blind extraction shaft (with no direct link to the premises outside the mine), through which the salt extracted from the Rudolph mine was transported vertically up to the Franz Joseph transportation gallery.

The extraction shaft is divided into three compartments: two with a useful section of 5.50 sq m each and designed for salt transportation, and the third fitted with stairs to ensure access for the workers between the Franz Joseph transportation gallery and the “balcony” in the Rudolph mine.

The ceiling room above the shaft, a tower with a height of 10.50 metres was carved, which was fitted with two steel pulleys with a diameter of 3 metres. Their role was to guide the extraction wire between the reel of the trolley and the base of the Rudolph mine and also to center the extraction cable over the axis of the transportation chambers of the extraction shaft.

Pulleys were installed in 1864 and are currently functional.

The extraction containers were large bags made of buffalo leather.

Under the pulleys, different devices were fitted (roller hooks that were sliding on a rail track) to transfer the containers from the extraction shaft section to the unloading platform. From there the lumps of salt were loaded into cars and transported to the warehouses in Turda Nouă.

The transport was made on narrow gauge railway lines and wagons pulled by horses.

The Trolley (“Crivac”) Hall, Turda Salt Mine, Turda

The trolley was built in 1881, and the year was “carved” on the vertical axis of the machine. The current machine replaced the first smaller trolley, which was installed in 1864. No other salt mine in Europe has such a machine, which is kept in its original location.

The trolley (the extraction machine) is a winch with a vertical axis known as the “gepel” and has four operating arms called “tovel”, used to hitch the horses that by moving around the spindle, were driving the machine. At the top, on the reel of the trolley a hemp rope was wound two or three times, with its two ends passing over two pulleys and guided through the proximal shaft towards the base of the conical exploitation room.

On the ends of the rope the extraction containers were fitted (bags made of buffalo leather, barrow, sling). The length of the rope was sized so that one end was located at the base of the minbe and the other at the opening of the etraction shaft. By rotating the trolley, one end of the rope was winding on the reel, while the other was unwinding, thus the bag loaded with lumps of salt went up to the surface while the empty bag was going down to the base of the mine in order to be loaded. Loading of the bags at the base and the unloading at the surface of the mine took place at the same time. If the rotation of the axis of the trolley was reversed, the extraction containers moved in the opposite direction.

The machine was driven by animal traction (horses); 1 or 2 horses were hitched to each arm, and the horses were working in shifts. Before electricity was introduced in the salt mine, the only source of light in the octagonal room were torches. Due to the poor illumination of the room and due to the circular motion, the horses used to go blind in a bout 2 weeks, because as they were taken out, their eyes were not covered and the bright light outside had this effect. After about 6 months the horses were unable to perform with maximum efficiency, and they were retired from mining / removed from the mine.

Joseph Mine, Turda Salt Mine, Turda

The extraction of salt in the Joseph mine started in 1740 and its name was given in the honour of Emperor Joseph II. One can only view the mine from the balconies carved in salt at the level of the transportation gallery. The connection between the surface and the inside of the mine is made through two shafts with a useful area of 6.5 sq m. The shafts were designed to provide access into the mine for the salt cutters, but also to ensure ventilation and a way to remove the salt. The base of the mine lies at a depth of 115 m below surface, and 80 m below the transportation gallery. The diameter of the mine, at its base, measures 67 metres. The shape of the mine (isolated, bell shape) along with the lack of connections with other chambers produce a powerful echo effect (high high-pitched sounds are echoed up to 20 times), this is why is called the “Echo Chamber”.

Franz Joseph Mine Balcony “Echo Chamber”, Turda Salt Mine, Turda
Gizela Mine, Turda Salt Mine, Turda

The opening works started after 1857, at the same time when the opening works at the Rudolph Mine and carving of the Franz Joseph Gallery were carried out. The name of the mine was given in the honour of the Princess Gisela Louise marie, Imperial Princess and Archduchess of Austria. At the same time the name of the mine became Ghizela by magyarisation.

The Gizela Mine was designed as a parallelepipedal extraction chamber with trapezoidal cross-section, but due to the economic deadlock in which the Turda Salt Mine was in the second half of the 19th century, the works remained in the preparation mining phase. This salt mining method in parallelepipedal rooms was considered in the mid 19th century, a technically superior method than the one using isolated conical rooms.

The longitudinal tracing gallery is about 85 metres long, whereas the opening between the side galleries is 12 metres wide.

The ceiling level is 13 metres below the ceiling level of the Rudolph Mine, because when Gizela Mine was initially opened, it interfered with an underground cavity (possibly an old mining room – mentions in ancient documents as “Mina Romana”), which forced the room to be opened at a lowere level. On the chamber walls there are very well preserved the contour furrows of the salt banks and the traces of the wedges used to cut the salt bank.

On the south wall of the access shaft a secondary salt (recrystalised) deposit was formed due to the water circulation through the “Mina Romana”, the initial mining galleries and the salt recrystalisation.

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