"Salt of the earth"

English photographer Kirill Kuletski visited the salt mines in the Ukrainian village of Solotvyno, where for 40 years there was an underground sanatorium for asthmatics.

Salt mines in Solotvyno were opened in the 18th century; in the 1970s, the Ukrainian Allergological Hospital was opened on their basis.

In addition to mines, Solotvyno has karst salt lakes, the salt content of which is higher than in the Dead Sea.

The alternative therapy used in Solotvyno to treat asthma and other respiratory problems is known as speleotherapy.

Speleotherapy was discovered in Poland in the 1950s when doctors noticed that miners in the salt mines rarely got tuberculosis.

The salt-laden air of the salt mines helps clear phlegm from the lungs and kill germs that cause respiratory infections.

The air of salt tunnels contains dozens of times fewer microorganisms than the air of a conventional operating room.

In addition to respiratory diseases, saturated salty air helps fight various skin diseases and the consequences of burns.

The clinic in the village of Solotvino was located in tunnels at a depth of 300 meters from the surface of the earth. The temperature here is kept at the same level all year round - 22 ° C.

The Solotvino hospital was the largest institution in the world that used speleotherapy as the main method of treatment and recovery after respiratory diseases.

Every year, from 300 to 500 people were treated in the Solotvyno salt mines - in order to get into the clinic, they often had to sign up on a waiting list.

The usual hospital stay was 24 days. Patients did not spend all their time underground; for therapy sessions, they went down in an elevator.

During treatment sessions, patients lay on beds that were placed in niches carved into the rock and illuminated by fluorescent lamps. They were allowed to talk to each other or read.

In addition to treatment rooms, the underground building housed a rest room and a library.

Salt mining in Solotvyno was stopped in the early 2000s due to a sharp rise in groundwater. The speleotherapy department was closed in 2008 after a breakthrough of water into the ventilation shaft.