Dobšinská Ice Cave

Dobšinská Ice Cave, in the Slovak Paradise National Park, is one of the largest ice caves in the world and has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst since 2000. Its entrance, long known to shepherds as the "Cold Hole", sits at about 970 metres on the northern slope of the Duča hill, some 130 metres above the Hnilec River, and is remarkably low for a cave of its kind.

The cave was carved by the Hnilec in Middle Triassic limestone and was once connected to the neighbouring Stratenská cave. A roof collapse cut it off and left a sack-shaped cavity about 180 metres wide descending some 70 metres from a single opening. Heavy cold air flows in and settles there in winter, and water seeping in during spring freezes into floor ice, icefalls and columns. The floor ice reaches about 25 metres in thickness and is clearly layered, and estimates of the total volume run well above 100,000 cubic metres. The Great Hall, an ellipse about 72 by 42 metres, averages around −1 °C, and the biggest ice column is about 9 metres high. Named features include the Niagara icefall and the Organ.

The mining engineer Eugen Ruffinyi and two companions made the first descent into the lower parts in 1870, and the cave opened to the public the following year. In 1887 it became the first cave in Europe with electric lighting. Visitors included Ferdinand de Lesseps, Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen; a concert was held in the Great Hall in 1890, and in 1893 guests went ice skating there in summer. Today a circuit of roughly half a kilometre through the ice-filled parts is open in the warmer months; the lower, ice-free sections with weathered dripstones are not on the route.

Getting there

The cave lies near the old mining town of Dobšiná, about 22 km from Poprad; the nearest airport is Poprad-Tatry (TAT), about 23 km away.