Floods Threatening Historic Polish Salt Mine Filled With Treasures : Archeology: Leaks are a peril not only to jobs but to an underground trove of scupltures that are on UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage list. It is not clear whether the cavern can be saved.

The cavernous halls of the 700-year-old Wieliczka salt mine could use a visit from the Treasurer, the spirit that legend says lives in the mine’s depths and makes himself visible when great danger looms.

Leaking water and slime are flooding the oldest continuously active mine in the world, threatening not only jobs but an underground trove of elaborate salt sculptures that a U.N. agency has cited as a cultural treasure.

Officials have had to close the route along which up to 500,000 visitors a year walked down twisting tunnels, alongside underground lakes, through chapels and into huge galleries with sculptures carved by miners from the translucent salt. An underground sanitarium for respiratory patients also shut down.

Above the mine, sinking land and surface fissures up to 5 feet long have forced rerouting of rail traffic and cracked the walls of a monastery. Seventy-seven monks, plus families in 13 endangered houses, are ready for evacuation at a moment’s notice.

Although its production had been scaled back in recent years, the mine is the livelihood of 1,250 workers above and below the ground.

“Generations of miners, engineers and artists have worked on the mine,” said Ryszard Gabrys, secretary of the town of Wieliczka. “This is a unique monument on a world scale.”

The national government, struggling to pay for Poland’s transition to a market economy, came up with $2.1 million to help the effort to avert catastrophe. The European Community added $1.3 million.

But it is not clear that the mine, which is on UNESCO’s list of World Cultural Heritage treasures, can be saved. Most salt mines eventually succumb to the waters that surround them.

Archeologists say that as early as 3500 BC salt was culled from the saline water at Wieliczka on the outskirts of Krakow, Poland’s capital from the 11th to the 16th Century.

Mining started in 1285 and brought wealth and power to the princes and kings who owned the rights. Even the modern state found petty cash in the mine’s depths until 1980, when excavation was curtailed to preserve the mine.

Only a small portion was opened to tourists, who could wander through galleries where chandeliers, life-size figures of saints and sculptures showing the mine’s history and legends are carved from the multicolored salt beds.

Some date to the 17th Century, but most have religious themes and were done by artistic miners in this century.

“Worship is very important to miners who work underground and whose lives are in constant danger,” said Gabrys. “There is a closeness to the figures of the saints.”

With salt production limited to the boiling of brine that comes from permanent leaks, and tourist fees covering only 4% of the budget, the magnificent mine has been relying on government charity--hard to come by as Poland struggles to rebuild after nearly five decades of communist rule.

The flooding began April 13, when water suddenly rushed from one of 270 water sources that previously flowed at a trickle. Water gushed in at up to 100 gallons a minute, covering a gallery at the depth of 561 feet with silt.

The flooding has ebbed and flowed since, reaching a peak of 5,200 gallons a minute in September.

The most damaging leak developed in late October when up to 2,600 gallons a minute started pouring into the fourth of the mine’s nine levels, which hold nearly 200 miles of tunnels. The lowest level, 1,079 feet down, has been completely flooded.

The tourist route is above the leak, but the sanitarium, located 696 feet down, is threatened. Both were closed in September.

Rescue crews have tried to staunch the flood by drilling drain holes and filling them with insulation. Pumps bought with the European Community’s donation have been installed, but with mixed success.