Demänovská Ice Cave
Encyclopedia
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
) is an ice cave
Ice cave
The term ice cave refers to any type of natural cave that contains significant amounts of perennial ice...
in the Demänovská Valley (Low Tatra
Low Tatra
The Low Tatras or Low Tatra is a mountain range of the Inner Western Carpathians in central Slovakia.It is located south of the Tatras proper, from which it is separated by the valleys of the Váh and Poprad rivers . The valley formed by the Hron River is situated south of the Low Tatras range...
) in Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
. It was first mentioned in 1299 and is one of oldest known caves in Europe. After the opening of Demänovská jaskyňa Slobody
Demänovská jaskyna Slobody
Demänovská Cave of Liberty is a karst cave in Low Tatras in Slovakia. Discovered in 1921 and opened to the public in 1924, it is the most visited cave in Slovakia.The public entrance is at an altitude of...
in 1924, interest in this cave declined. It was reopened to the public after the reconstruction of wooden stairs and electrical lighting in 1952, with 680 m accessible out of the 1,975 m. Currently, the route for visitors is 850 m long and takes about 45 minutes to traverse.