Domica

Entrance area

The Domica Cave ( Jaskyňa Domica ) is a stalactite cave in Slovakia near the Hungarian border in the Slovak Karst. It is expected, thanks to its beautiful stalactites and stalagmites of the most beautiful caves in Slovakia.

The cave is located on the territory of the municipality Kečovo at Plešivec, on the southwestern edge of the Silická planina (silica plateau ). It is in the nature reserve Domické škrapy in the area of the National Park Slovak Karst. It forms a common system with the Aggtelekhöhle (Hungarian Baradla ) in Hungary (a total of 21-25 km).

History

In the cave several finds from the Paleolithic and the Neolithic period have been made. The Neolithic finds are Bükk culture, a part of the Linear Pottery Culture. The excavations were conducted by the archaeologist January Lichardus. In the rear area of ​​the cave a pair of charcoal drawings have been preserved.

The Aggtelekhöhle was first mentioned in 1770. The Domicahöhle have been known since about 1808, but fell by the highly visited Aggtelekhöhle into oblivion. Only the boundary between Czechoslovakia ( now Slovakia ) and Hungary after World War I led in 1926 to a re- inspection by Ján Majko, a member of the Finance Guard. 1932, the cave was then made ​​available to the public and declared 1972 a protected natural formation. At the site of the Slovak- Hungarian border at the time a grid was installed. With the geoscientific research dealt responsible Radim Kettner, who founded the musem ..

Characteristics

From a total length of 5080 m 1315 m are available.

Tours take place all year round. The extraordinary beauty of the cave you can also admire a boat trip. Domica is known for its spacious dome and in one of them the famous Slovak fairy tales of " The Salt Prince" was ( original title: Sol nad zlato ) rotated.

Domica is caused by periodic underground streams of the rivers Styx and Domica. The Styx forms in the Domica a small lake. Through years of erosive activity of these streams breaks have been expanded and emerged as the wide corridors and halls. The Domica is characterized by rich sinter decoration. Once Signboards and drums, onion-shaped stalactites, stalagmites and sinter pagoda- shaped pool.

The cave has a few rooms, halls and corridors and all have their own names, such as the Cathedral of the Mysteries, pottery, Virgin Passage, Glückssee, jungle, Cathedral of Indian pagodas and others. Majkos Cathedral is the most formidable saloon of the cave. It is the meeting place of all gears and has a magnificent ornament. By cascading waterfalls, which are also called the Roman bath, the underground river Styx flows.

The special features include the abundant population of bats. In the cave system 16 bat species occur.