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POSTOJNA CAVES VELCOME 30 MILLIONTH VISITOR
Alenka Vesenjak/STA
It is amazing what even the tinniest amount of liquid can do; seeping through limestone for two million years, little drops of water have created magnificent underground galleries. Among the most spectacular of these are the Postojna Caves, which recently welcomed their 30 millionth visitor.
It was the world-famous British Sculptor Henry Moore who described the Postojna Caves as the most magnificent, splendid gallery of nature. It is therefore no wonder that the caves - a network of 20 kilometres of tunnels, caverns and chambers - have been attracting visitors from around the world ever since they were first opened for sightseers in 1819.
Preparations for organised tours of the caves were launched in 1818 when guide Luka Čeč discovered interior parts of the cave system on the occasion of a visit by Hapsburg Emperor Francis I. By August the next year, the path was cleared so that the caves could welcome the then crown Prince Ferdinand. This visit opened the door to Postojna underground tourism. The book of visitors, introduced that same year, testifies that 114 people visited the caves the first year. The book contains the names of statesmen and crowned heads of the likes of Emperor Franz Josef, Mussolini, Yugoslavia's communist leader Tito and, most recently, Danish Queen Margrethe II and Japanese Princess Sayako.
The caves attracted the most visitors at the time when Slovenia was still part of the former Yugoslavia; then it welcomed more than a million visitors a year. Turnout has halved over the past few years; the majority of visitors come from abroad, mostly from Italy and Germany. Recently, the company managing the caves has a new owner, the oil trader Istrabenz, which has lately been investing heavily in tourism and promises to give the caves back their former splendour.
Postojna Caves are the largest and the most widely known of some 7000 caves in Slovenia. Some 100 have been searched by speleologists and most of them are centred in the mountainous area near the Adriatic where several rivers flowing through the Karst Plateau disappear suddenly to "travel" on underneath the surface to re-appear somewhere else.
Many claim that the caves in Postojna are too touristy and prefer the quieter, and somewhat rougher, Škocjan Caves. The Postojna Caves are the only ones that can be visited by electric train, while the five-kilometre stretch intended for sightseeing has been lit by electric lighting for more than a century. Nevertheless, those eager for more adventure do not have to enter the cave system through the main entrance and by train as there are five other entrances to the caves. STA
Proteus anguinus (the cave salamander) is the most notable resident of the cave darkness. It has no eyes and no protective pigment and has a skin colour similar to humans; hence its Slovenian name človeška ribica (human fish). It was explorers' interest in this creature, and the discovery of a special cave beetle adapted to eternal darkness, that initiated a special science some 200 years ago: speleobiology, the study of living organisms in caves. More than 200 species of underground fauna have been discovered in Slovenia.
The largest cave gallery, called the Concert Hall, used to serve as a ballroom; Whit Monday balls were launched there soon after the caves were opened for sightseeing in 1819.