올디슬레벤‬에서 가장 멋진 ‪20‬개의 천연기념물

Here you can marvel at amazing formations of gypsum and anhydrite.

The cozy restaurant serves Thuringian specialties. There is a snack bar with outdoor seating. Here you can wait with a drink and a little something to eat until the tours of the cave begin.

The Barbarossa Cave covers 13,000 square meters and is one of only two existing show caves in the world, made of anhydrite rock, making it a geological rarity. The unique charm of this magical subterranean world lies in the uniquely beautiful, multi-layered play of colors of the white to gray rock.

The Barbarossa Cave was discovered purely by chance. The idea was to revive copper shale mining in the Kyffhäuser region. In 1860, the entrepreneur Wilhelm von Born therefore had a tunnel dug beneath the ruins of the Falkenburg and directly on the old salt road to Bad Frankenhausen. Meter by meter, the miners penetrated further and further into the mountain. And then: after a distance of 178 meters, on December 22, 1865, the mountain suddenly opened up in front of them - they came across natural cavities of impressive size and beauty.

The South Harz gypsum karst landscape stretches for around 100 kilometers in length but only a few kilometers in width on the southern slope of the Harz Mountains. Here you can find a wide variety of karst phenomena such as sinkholes, dolines, caves and stream sinkholes, which are unique in Europe in such large numbers in such a small area. The gypsum karst area in the South Harz is the largest and most important gypsum karst area in Central Europe. The Gipskuppe is one of the unique areas worth protecting.

The gypsum karst landscape is simply beautiful.

The Barbarossa Cave was discovered in 1865 by miners searching for copper shale and opened to the public as a show cave two weeks later. A visit is definitely worthwhile, admission costs €9.50.

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