History

THE FIRST MARVEL OF COLOMBIA

This mountain was  discovered by our indians, MUISCAS,  They took the salt  that flow from some salty fountains,  which mixed  with water, form small rivers, then they  boiled the water, and when  it   dried in the pot  remained small quantities of white sal.

At the beggining, the indians, the indians called “chigua” to the dark blocks of salt that flow from the  mountain; later on it was called “sal vigua” that means sal virgen. Those blocks of salt were put on pots made of clay, “Juiches”, which were broken  with a stick, when the salt was.

They used the sal as money, for buying their food and for their  bussiness.

In the year 1801, Alexander Von Humbolt, a very important  scientist from Germany  in Colombia, and  visited the  mine, he was very  concerned about mining, and he said that the explotation should be underground., by  bulding tunnels to find the purest salt.   The German  engineer Jacobo Wiesner began in 1816 a tunnel in the second level of explotation,  which was called Potosi.

In 1834, Diego Davinson and Alejandro  McDouall,  began the first level of explotation in the cota 2730 mts.  This was called  Guasca that means “cave”.  In this place they built the first salt cathedral, using the big caves in the upper level.

The miners who buit the old salt cathedral, in 1950, for  giving thanks to the Virgin for her protection.   The name of the  Virgin in Guasca.  It´s an  indian name that means “cave” . The Virgin of the cave”.

The old Cathedral was built between the year 1951 and 1954.   The  original idea was to build a little   chapel of the miners  for giving thanks to  the  Virgin  for her protection, but in the level of production.  It was a chapel not a church.  It was inaugurated  in 1954, and it was opened  till 1992.  The goverment closed the old cathedral  because it had many  problems in its structures; and decided to bult a new cathedral  in the south of the mountain. The old  was in the north. It was very small  and rustic; the new is in the south and it¨s bigger than the old  and is very symbolic. The new cathedral was  built from the year 1992 to 1995.

The new  cathedral was directed by the engineer Jorge Castelblanco and it was designed by Roswell Garavito Pearl, who included in the  design many religious symbols. After three years of hard work and creation and 127 colombian people  working inside, the salt Cathedral was inagurated by Ernesto Samper Pizano, President of Colombia   on December 16 1995.

The new cathedral  is divided in three levels.  In the first, we find the Stations of the cross and the old chapels of salt.
In the second  level,  we have  the Cupola, the Nartex and the Choir.
In the third level, we have the three big NAVES of the Cathedral.

THE NEW  SALT CATHEDRAL

From the ceremonial square, the descend to the  depth,  toward the interior of the salt Cathedral,  starts through the sacred axis “The  oak¨s tunnel”;  this route prepares in the pilgrim in the accecis  transition  from the external world, like beggining, to the conceptual interior word, like a destination.  The  entrance  is a big crack representing  a trip from the material to unmaterial, from  terrestrial  things to    spiritual things.  You go into a  mountain under the steeple and the Great  Cross that emerges of it, and whose proyection in the square is the Cardinal Cross, symbol of union  of  the  towns.

The  descent towards the Cathedral is slow,  during this lapsed, it is diluted  the notion of time, light, heat, sound, color, wind, and movement.  It is a route till a new interior vision,  a permanent underground world of centuries, mysterous, that invites  you to the maditation, the reflection, and the  contemplation...... It¨s an  authentic and unique  experience.