Zipaquirá - The Salt Cathedral

Not far away from Bogotá lays a little town called Zipaquirá. The town is a seating of a salt mine, that has been converted into a cathedral. The salt is still being extracted from the mine, but it is also functioning as a cathedral where you come to pray or perhaps if you feel like - get married. The altar is located at 180 metres below the ground, reachable after a 2 km walk down the mine.

Zipaquirá cathedral in the centre

Old square of Zipa

Along the walk, as in any other church, there’s the Way of the Cross. You won’t see the traditional paintings of Jesus, but an artistic interpretation of it.

Entrance of the Salt Cathedral and the mine

The guided tour is available in English or Spanish language, departing every 15 minutes. The guided tour lasted one hour.

The mine has been opened to the public in 1995. Proclaimed as a miracle of Colombia, with a cultural and historical heritage. There’s only one place in the World, where you can see a cathedral made of salt – nearby Krakow in Poland, called Wieliczka.

The altar

The entrance costs COP 20.000, with the guide, show of the sounds and lights and a short movie included. You can also enjoy the tour around the salt mine itself and extract the salt, for a slightly higher price.

To get to Zipaquirá is really easy, as the infrastructure  in Colombia is well developed. We got on a Transmilenio to Portal Norte. As an indication of where you need to get off would be a huge yellow sign saying “´Exito”, which is a chain of supermarkets here. We crossed the platform and got on a minivan with “Zipa” written on it, which is a shortcut of Zipaquirá and an ancient name of it. It took us 1 hour to get there, but the way back was only 30 minutes. Ask the driver where is your stop. Where we got off was at the crossroads of the main streets, and it is where you get a bus to the way back. It is a short walk of around 12-15 blocks, I don’t think it’s necessary to get a taxi, as the guides and other blogs recommend. The bus cost COP 4.100 per person.  This excursion is worth your time, of which you will  need to devote  half a day. Enjoy!