Situated in the
Slovak Paradise, in the National Nature Reserve
Stratena within the territory of the Slovak Paradise
National Park. It was formed in the Middle Triassic
limestones by the former ponor stream of Hnilec river,
at three developmental levels. The cave length is 1,483
m. Ice filling occurs in the form of ground ice, ice „waterfalls",
ice stalagmites and columns. The total volume of ice is
110,100 cubic meters with maximum thickness of 26.5 m.
It ranks among the most important ice caves in the
world, thanks to its character of glaciation. This is,
in the European scope, even more pronounced by its
location outside the Alpine region. The cave is one of
the most important winter refuges of bats - Myotis
mystacinus and Myotis brandti in Slovakia.
The opening to the cave was known since the time
immemorial. The cave was discovered in 1870, and open to
the public as early as in 1871. Since 1887, it has been
the first cave with electric illumination in that-time
Hungary. Currently, 475 m of the cave are open to the
public.
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