History of Salt Caves

Salt therapy has been used as a tool to treat respiratory conditions for over 150 years, but we have known about the natural benefits of salt for thousands. Modern-day dry salt therapy received its roots from the salt mines and caves of Eastern Europe. 

• 1843 – Dr. Feliks Boczkowski discovers men working the Wieliczka Salt Mine suffer from fewer respiratory conditions and have a lower probability of lung disease than the general population. He begins offering salt baths to the people of Poland but soon realizes staying underground could be even more effective.

• 1849 – German physician Karl Hermann Spannahel notices his patients’ health improving after hiding from bombs in underground salt caves during WWII. His patients’ health began to improve. He creates the Kluytret Cave as an inpatient facility to research the effects of underground salt exposure, eventually confirming Boczkowski’s theory and the medical effectiveness of underground environments.

• 1958 – Professor Mieczyslaw Skulimowski becomes the official physician of the Wieliczka Salt Mine and begins regular treatment of patients in salt chambers, initiating a new field of medicine called Subterraneo Therapy, which refers exclusively to underground “salted” environments. 

• 1964 – The “Kinga” Health Resort Hospital was created in the Wieliczka Salt Cave, becoming the world’s first facility of its kind. 

• 1968 – Professor Skulimowski’s practices spread to other former Soviet Union states, and the first speleo-hospital was opened in Ukraine, located in the Solotvyno Salt Mine. 

• 1985 – The first Halogenerator was created in Odessa, Russia, at the Institute of Balneology. 

• 1991 – The fall of the Soviet Union calls for information about halo technology and Halotherapy protocols to become available to the rest of the world. 

• Today – Roughly 650 facilities offering dry salt therapy operate in the United States and Canada.

SOURCE: https://thesaltworksandspa.com/history-of-halotherapy