Other tourist attractions

A short distance from the salt mine is a fascinating tourist attraction: the Salt Mountain, a natural monument, a bare salt massif, inside which is an old water-filled hole, which the locals call the Bride's Grotto. In the area, tourists can visit the Ghighiu, Zamfira, Crasna, Cheia, Suzana monasteries, the Piatra Verde volcanic tuff quarry or relax at the "Baia Baciului", "Baia Roşie", "Băile Verzi" beaches or in the nearby Cheia resort.

Access and microclimate

Visitors to the Unirea Mine – Salina Slănic Prahova are currently accessed by minibuses, up to a depth of 208m. In this “salt palace”, open to visitors since the 1970s, the microclimate is constant and unreproducible on the surface: temperature of 12-13º C, relative air humidity of 50-60%, radioactivity at the detection limit, atmospheric pressure 18 mmHg higher than at the surface, high concentration of natural saline aerosols, lack of plant allergens, rarity of conditionally pathogenic germs and absence of pathogens.

Location and history The exploitation of the salt deposit at the Slănic Prahova Salt Mine has been carried out for over three centuries, this being the most recent documentary attestation. The beginnings of the history of the salt mine date back to around 1685, the year in which the nobleman Mihail Cantacuzino realized that there was a salt deposit in the Slănic Prahova region and thus, wanting to open a mine, he bought the Slănic estate. The document recording the transaction also shows that before 1685 there were old salt mines, of shallow depths, 5 km east of Slănic (Teişani). In 1688, the first exploitation was opened on Valea Verde, followed by the exploitations at Baia Baciului between 1689-1691, by the nobleman Cantacuzino. In 1713, Mihail Cantacuzino donated both his estate in Slănic and the salt mines to the Colţea Monastery in Bucharest. Between 1601 and 1700, salt mining in the area was carried out at Baia Verde, Dorobanteşti and Baia Baciului, using the "bell" method, in which access was achieved through two compartments: a vertical one used to extract the salt, and the other oblique for entering and exiting the mine. Since 1912, salt has also been extracted from the Mihai mine, which operated simultaneously with the Carol mine (United Principalities). In the same year, electric lighting was introduced in the Mihai mine. Mining work ended in 1943 when a new mine was opened under the Carol and Mihai mines. This mine was called Unirea and salt was extracted from it until 1970, when it moved to the Victoria mine. The need to increase the degree of recovery of reserves was reflected in the exploitation by applying the system of square chambers and pillars with the exploitation of 11 floors. The mining flow was carried out in the sequence: demolition, drilling, loading the holes with explosives, shooting the face of the pit, baking the working face, loading the salt from the pits to the roller crusher, crushing the salt underground and transporting it by car on the mine's belt conveyor.