Benno Cave
| Benno Cave
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 Entrance to the Benno cave |
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| Location: | Saxon Switzerland | |
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Geographic location: |
50 ° 49 '59.8 " N , 14 ° 2' 57.3" E | |
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| Type: | Rift / rubble cave | |
| Overall length: | 35 m | |
| Level difference: | 13.5 m | |
The Bennohöhle is a cleft cave created by rubble blocks made of sandstone in the Bielatal in Saxon Switzerland . It is located south of the Ottomühle above the Biela on the orographic left side of the valley and is accessible to visitors. The cave is about 35 m long and 13.5 m deep.
The long-known cave was first made accessible in 1824 by the forester Puttrich from Rosenthal and the owners of the Ottomühle and the Wormsmühle in the Bielatal. The aim was to attract hikers and tourists who discovered Saxon Switzerland as a romantic landscape around this time . It was first described in 1825 by the cave and natural scientist Carl Merkel , who also described other caves and sights in the Biela Valley.
In the cave there is a barely legible inscription carved on the rear wall of the cave:
"MvDonjn 1401. Benno"
In addition to the inscription, a chalice was also carved. In 1825 Merkel suspected on the basis of the inscription that in the course of the Dohna feud in 1401 the burgrave Otto Maul von Dohna , the brother of the burgrave Jeschke von Dohna, was on the run from the margrave Wilhelm the One-Eyed of Meissen . Further suspicions extended to a hermit named Benno, who lived here as a persecuted Hussite and who also died. The chalice as a symbol of the Hussites was said to have been placed in the cave by his co-religionists on the occasion of his burial. The inscription was, however, a modern forgery by the developers of the cave, as was soon discovered based on the modern spelling of the number 4. Nevertheless, there are also other legends surrounding the cave and the inscription, for example about an Italian gold and gemstone hunter who is said to have buried his found treasures here.
Around 1850, the previous entrance to the Bennohöhle, which could only be used via a ladder, was replaced by an access artificially carved out of the rock. Since then, the former access can only be accessed by climbing due to the lack of a ladder.
Due to the hidden location and the depth, in the entrance area of the Bennohöhle as well as in other parts of the Biela Valley, for example the ice hole in winter, snow that has fallen in winter often lingers into summer. In the vicinity of the Benno Cave there are other rift caves, but only accessible to climbers and cave explorers, of which the Deep Cave is the deepest cave in the Biela Valley with a length of 45 m and a depth of over 22 m.
literature
- Carl Merkel: Biela or description of western Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland. A paperback for friends of the great outdoors. Bischofswerda 1825
- Michael Bellmann: Cave Guide Elbe Sandstone Mountains , Heimatbuchverlag Michael Bellmann, Dresden 2010, ISBN 978-3-937537-21-4
- Peter Rölke (Ed.): Hiking & Nature Guide Saxon Switzerland , Volume 2, Verlag Rölke, Dresden 2000, ISBN 3-934514-09-X
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Caves in the Bielatal ( Memento of the original dated December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on May 13, 2011)
- ↑ a b c d Michael Bellmann: Höhlenführer Elbsandsteingebirge , Heimatbuchverlag Michael Bellmann, Dresden 2010, ISBN 978-3-937537-21-4 , pp. 86-87
- ↑ Peter Rölke (Ed.): Wander- & Naturführer Sächsische Schweiz , Volume 2, Verlag Rölke, Dresden 2000, ISBN 3-934514-09-X , p. 232
