Wieliczka Salt Mine Symbol: Can you help me Identify it?

Hi There,

When I visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine I can across an altar with a strange "A" like symbol on the front. I asked a few of the guides, and they had no clue.

If anyone knows the mine or knows the history of the symbol etc I would very much appreciate some info, either here, or via PM. You can find a photo of the Symbol here . It's the first small image on the left of the page with the words "Do you know what the symbol on this Altar is? Please let me know if you do." under it.

Many thanks for any help

Dave

Looks like a stylized Alpha and Omega; christian hocus pocus codes about the good lord being the first and the last. Surprised the guides didn't know as they're probably RCs and see the symbols every week in church. Wikipedia probably has more about it.

By the way - Warsaw's airport has not been renamed to Imam Khomeini International Airport yet, as mentioned on your website, but we hope the change will finally be made in a year or two. If you're a Chopin-hater, you can always travel south a bit and use Krakow's Che Guevara Terminal instead.

I have to agree with #1, although I could have lived without the attitude that came with the answer. And since his ass is too ignorant to know better, it is NOT a common Christian symbol, so it's NOT something someone would see "every week in church". Of course given Jeroen's hostility towards Christianity, he wouldn't know that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_and_Omega explains it all.

To add to #1 - it's also not 120,000 Rial any more for a taxi from Warsaw's Imam Khomeini International Airport to the Warsaw bazaar, prices have risen significantly, try to bargain like the locals do, though.

OP,
Just had a look at your website which looks nice. One remark though (from your brief description of Nowa Huta):

What's amazing here is that the soviets built up the area's street entrances so that a tank could block the entry/exit points. Thereby nothing could get in nor out.

This is a prime example of western bred paranoia. Get over it and try to look at places like anywhere else.

Alpha omega not a common symbol? It's visible in many, many churches which I rather enjoy visiting, on graves in old churchyards too; it's quite a common symbol, and should be quite well known to the faithful, as it's part of the basic doctrine.
I was actually in the Wielicka mine myself two days ago and spotted the symbol too. Quite nicely done, in salt and all. Lovely chapel too, well worth visiting - but rather pricey at 65 zloty.

Thanks for helping track done the religious aspects of the symbol, it's been bothering me for some time.

Fieldgate: Thanks for the complement however I don't actually have to get over anything. My polish mate from Krakow mate gave me that info as he showed me around. Take it up with him.

Thanks to everyone for spotting the Iranian paragraph about the airport lol. It was the same template as my Iranian page so slipped by. Not many people go to the polish page.

Glad to have seen the link though. Explained everything I needed to know.

Dave

Dave,

My polish mate from Krakow mate gave me that info

You should take it with a grain of salt, not literally. Poles always loved to joke about the communism and the Soviet contribution to what was supposed to make us happy. Humour doesn't always travel well, especially with language barriers.