THE MYSTERIOUS
POSTOJNA CAVE finally
discovered
It is not only its beauty, but also the mysterious living
creatures and other natural phenomena found there,
such as the human fish or 'Proteus Anguinus' that have
attracted people from all over the world to visit the
Postojna Cave in Slovenia.
The Postojna Cave goes back to prehistoric times when it was used by the local inhabitants
as shelter from bad weather and later as a place to hide when being attacked by foreign
and local intruders. Until recently people have been familiar only with a few hundred
metres of the cave closest to the entrance. But judging by the signatures on the walls of the
Passage of Old Signatures, visitors have been coming to this part of the cave as early as the
13th century if not earlier.
Six years ago (1818) a lamplighter, Luka Čeč, dared to
go further into the cave on his own and discovered
sections previously unknown to anyone. In his
endeavour to find the end of the cave, he went
missing for a few days. We all went looking for him
and he finally came out of the cave excited but very
dirty. Everyone said he laid the foundation of cave
tourism. And to prove this, the Austrian Emperor,
Ferdinand I, was the first eminent official visitor in the
cave.
The human fish –
PROTEUS ANGUINUS