Only a handful of 2400+ caves in Slovakia are to be seen and admired by a public eye.
A cave is a remarkable natural phenomena. It is a large underground space created naturally by the weathering of rock.
These caves are noted for having the world’s highest stalagmite, aragonite and sinter formations and an ice filled abyss, which considering the territory’s height above sea level, is a unique phenomenon for central Europe.
Belianska Cave
Because of its great acoustic conditions, the concerts of classical canned music were organised here. In recent years, the cave is used for convalescent speleo-climatic stays.
Wonderful cave located right in Tatra National Park (TANAP).
The cave entrance has long been known. The entrance parts were known by gold seekers as early as the first half of the 18th century, which is evidenced by the inscriptions of their names on the rocky walls. However they had been unrevealed for many years. The entrance was again found by L. Gulden and gold miner Fabry in 1826, however they did not penetrate deeper into the cave.
About 1 km educational route is leading the entrance of the cave and takes about 25 minutes. Duration of whole visit with 860 stairs and the length of 1.360 m lasts 70 minutes. Air temperature rises only from 5 to 6,3°C, so in summer you better take some warmer clothes with. Relative humidity is 90 – 97%.
During the visit you will walk through enormous halls and thinner corridors, your attention will be drawn to abysses and sinter waterfalls. There is a Music Hall, which got its name by the sound of falling drops on the water surface of a lake.
Bystrianska Cave
The Bystrianska cave is located in the southern part of the Low Tatras in Banská Bystrica region, in close distance to the holiday resort of Tále.
The cave is represented mainly by narrow and high corridors widened by corrosion and erosion of the river flow. There are also bigger halls and domes, like Collapsed Dome and Mostárenské Halls. During the visit you will see three abysses in the depth 15 – 20 m below the visit route. The abyss called Hell has the depth of 56 m. Cave offers diversity of underground decoration. Aragonite was also found on some places under Hell. Eight kinds of bats reside in the cave.
The cave reaches the length of more than 3,531 m with vertical span of 99 m. It was formed by the ponor waters of Bystrianka flowing into the karst territory from the southern slopes of the Low Tatras Mountains in several developmental stages in dependence to the valley bottom deepening.
The main spaces of the New Cave have narrow and high fissure passages widened by corrosion and erosion of the water course. Shorter oval passages are prevailingly predisposed by interbed surfaces and they connect the narrow fissure passages in some places
Ice Cave
The Demänovská Ice Cave was formed in Middle Triassic dark-grey Guttenstein limestones of the Krížna Nappe, along tectonic faults by the previous ponor flow of the Demänovka River, which flowed from the Demänovská Cave of Peace.
It presents the northern previously spring part of the Demänovský cave system. Some upper parts of the cave are formed by waters of side ponor branch of Demänovka River, which penetrated from the adjacent Dvere Cave and from the New Cave in Bašta.
Cave is formed by the underground flow of the river Demänovka. Visit tour leads through spacious river corridors interrupted by steep sections. Its first part takes you to cave spaces with sinter decoration and the second through icy spaces, which is a really impressing combination.
Ice filling is located in the lower parts – it occurs in the form of ground ice, stalactites, stalagmites or ice columns. In cave is a long-known find of bones of various animals, including cave bear, which were once considered as dragon bones – that’s why the second name of Demanovska ice cave was the Dragon’s cave.
The entrance to the cave in reef called “Bašta” can be seen from parking place, but you have to climb up to it for about 20 minutes. The path has resting places and educational panels.
Demänovská Cave of Liberty
The cave represents morphologically the most varied part of the Demänovský Cave System. It is formed in the Middle Triassic dark-gray Gutenstein limestones of the Krížna Nappe along the tectonic faults by the ancient ponor flow of Demänovka and its side hanging ponor tributaries.
The Demänovská Cave of Liberty is located in the northern part of the Low Tatras in Liptov region within Demänovská Valley. It is the most visited cave in Slovakia.
The path with educational boards in length of 400 m leads to the entrance of the cave in the elevation height 870 m. The duration of the walk is about 10-15 min. Average temperature in the cave is 6,1 – 7°C.
You can choose between traditional and long visit tour. But be careful because the long visit tour is held only once a day.
The underground water course of Demänovka, which springs in the non-karst territory under the main ridge of the Low Tatras, flows through the cave. It sinks underground in Lúčky and springs again through the Vyvieranie Cave northerly from the Demänovská Cave of Liberty.
Dead Bats Cave
Cave of Dead Bats was named after the findings of bat bones. They were spread around the cave and their age is around 6000 years according to the experts. This is one of the hugest and most important high mountain caves in Slovakia.
The cave is located in the central part of the Low Tatras at 1750 meters height above the sea. The average temperature is 3.5 degrees Celsius. The cave includes 14 levels and two parallel tunnels. The seventh level is the biggest one and is situated at 180 meters depth.
Dead Bats Cave is located in the mountainous terrain and protected NAPANT area. It is a unique opportunity to visit a mysterious underground of Low Tatras.
The road to the cave is leading from Trangoska to Chalet of Milan Rastislav Stefanik, from which you can also get to Dumbier, the highest peak in the Low Tatras (2,043 m). The entrance to the cave is at an respectable altitude of 1,520 m!
Until now, a total of fourteen floors in two parallel branches were discovered – that ranks the cave among one of the largest caves in Slovakia. It got its interesting name due to the number of bat bones, found in various parts of the cave. Besides the bat bones, whose age is estimated to 6,000 years, the bones of martens, rodents, bears and goats were found here too.
Basic cave tour is 1 km long, lighted and secured with steel ropes and bridges. Is it permissible for children from 6 years old.
Additional speleoroutes for the demanding require good physical fitness – speleological trekking with classic climbing awaits you.
