Saeva dupka cave

Worth a detour

Five chambers over roughly two hundred metres of gallery, lit since 1967 and relit in 2004, with one hall — the Haramana — whose acoustics have been used for actual performances rather than as a line in a leaflet. It is a few kilometres off the Hemus motorway near the village of Brestnitsa, which makes it the easiest cave stop between Sofia and the north. Take a layer.

Story

Background

The name is traced to two brothers, Seyu and Sae, said to have sheltered here under Ottoman rule; excavation has shown the cave was used as far back as Roman times. The halls are named in the plain way Bulgarian caves usually are: Kupena, the entrance chamber; Srutishteto, the collapse; the Haramana, which people call the concert hall; Kosmos, for a stalagmite that looks like a rocket; and Beliya Zamak, the White Castle, the formation that ends up on every photograph of the place.

The acoustics are the distinguishing feature and they have been used seriously — Bulgarian singers and visiting choirs have both performed down there. The rest is a competent, well-lit, short show cave, which after a few hours on the motorway is exactly enough.

It also matters as a bat site: eight species use it seasonally, several of them European conservation priorities, including greater and lesser horseshoe bats.