Coves d'Artà

Coves d'Artà
Location:	Canyamel , Mallorca , Spain
Height :	150 msnm
Geographic ; location:	39 ° 39 '22 " N , 3 ° 27' 3" E Coordinates: 39 ° 39 '22 " N , 3 ° 27' 3" E
Type:	Stalactite cave
Discovery:	known before 1229
Lighting:	electric
Overall length:	400 meters
Website:	www.cuevasdearta.com

The Coves d'Artà ( Castilian Cuevas de Artá , Caves of Artà ') or Coves de s'Ermità are a stalactite cave system on the east coast of the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca . The caves are located in the municipality of Capdepera east of the town of Canyamel . The name Coves d'Artà dates back to before 1858, when Capdepera was not an independent municipality, but belonged to the area of Artà together with Son Servera .

location

Canyamel Bay

The Coves d'Artà are next to the Coves del Drac and the Coves dels Hams the most famous cave system of the east of Mallorca, the region ( comarca ) Llevant . While the other two caves are near the village of Porto Cristo , the "Caves of Artà" are located further northeast, about 15 kilometers away from them.

The entrance to the Coves d'Artà is on the south side of Cap Vermell , a peninsula that delimits a small bay to the north into which the Torrent de Canyamel flows. At the Platja de Canyamel there , the tourist town of Canyamel developed in the last few years of the 20th century and today has 384 inhabitants (as of 2007) .

North above the village, a well-developed and signposted road leads to a parking lot at the cave entrance. The entrance to the Coves d'Artà on the staircase to the caves, built in 1860 on the occasion of the visit of Queen Isabella II, is about 50 meters above sea level and offers an excellent view over the Bay of Canyamel.

history

The Coves d'Artà were inhabited in earlier times and were also used as refuge by pirates. The last Moorish soldiers found refuge here in 1229 from the advancing army under Jaume I , King of Aragon . The stone in the entrance area is still heavily blackened by attempts at fumigation.

Plan of the cave from 1862

Some inscriptions found in the caves date from the 16th and 17th centuries (1517 and 1614 according to Antonio Cabra). Between 1806 and 1808 it was probably the clergyman Juan Garau y Serra who was the first to explore the cave system. A memorial book has been on display since 1869, in which visitors to the caves can register and which already contains the names of some well-known personalities such as Jules Verne , Victor Hugo , Alexandre Dumas , Antonio Maura and Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria .

description

Stairs at the exit

The cave system can only be visited as part of a guided tour (in several languages). The entrance area lies under an approximately 100 meter wide rock arch that arches 25 meters high over the asphalt forecourt. The caves are entered via an entrance with a gate on the left below the stone staircase built in 1860 and exited again via the staircase itself (left picture). The tour leads on secured paths through several electrically lit halls and rooms.

Entrance to the caves

Virgen del Pilar

After walking through a tunnel, you first enter the “anteroom” or the “vestibule”. The room is 75 meters long, between 20 and 40 meters wide and 15 to 25 meters high. The most striking of the many stalactites is named Virgen del Pilar ( Our Lady on the Pillar ) after a Spanish portrait of the Virgin Mary . From there a corridor turns to the left and after a few steps you enter the “Hall of 1000 Columns”. Many of the stalagmites and stalactites have united to form continuous columns from the floor to the cave ceiling.

Next, through a high portal with stone curtains, you reach the “Queen's Hall”. The eponymous 22-meter-high stalactite column (according to other information only 15 meters high), the "queen of the columns", stands in the middle of the room and is particularly slim in relation to its height. The richly decorated stalagmite still has some space to the ceiling vault. In 1841 an English company offered £ 25,000 to purchase this stalagmite but was unable to complete the purchase. At the end of the hall, two individual pieces can be seen on a stone step, which are called "tent" and " tabernacle ". They are surrounded by smaller stalactites and are four or eight meters high. At the other end of the room is a small hole, surrounded by stone curtains, which is called the "throne canopy".

"Hall of Flags"

After a staircase leading downwards and walking through the “anteroom of Hell”, a smaller room with a column broken in an earthquake and high stone curtains, the visitor arrives in “Hell”. The stalactite columns are thicker here than in other areas of the cave and reach up to the ceiling. Some sharp deposits are called "Hell's Flament". In the lower area of the room, at the foot of a yellowish rock, there is a thin, twisted column, an area that is called "Napoleon's coffin". All areas of the caves are illuminated in different light according to their names, in the "hell" the visitor is also offered a sound-changing light show.

After passing a “lion” and a “cypress” one arrives at “paradise”. With a height of 54 meters it is the largest cave in the Coves d'Artà and resembles the nave of a cathedral. The space is said to have a larger volume than the Cathedral of Palma . The further tour leads to a balcony, from which one looks down into the Salón de Columnas, where the white color of the stalactites may suggest a more recent formation. Then you reach the “Hall of Flags”, named after two broad stone structures that appear to be wrinkled. A group of pillars optically forms the view of an “organ” and some of the various pillars, the “bells”, let out harmonious sounds when they are struck with stones, which is also demonstrated to the visitors.

Motto in the "flag room"

On the rock wall of the “Flag Hall”, a paragraph from the poem “La deixa del Geni Grench” by the Mallorcan Miquel Costa i Llobera (1854 - 1922) is engraved on a plaque , which is set in the Coves d'Artà . The saying was placed in memory of a reading of several parts of the poetry by the poet Guillem Colom i Ferrà (1890 - 1979) on the occasion of the hundredth birthday of Miquel Costa i Llobera:

Per un batec de l'ansia amb que ton cor expira,
dariem les centúries de calma que tenim.

For one beat of the heart that dies in fear,
we would give all the rest of centuries.

Exit with sea view

A newly built staircase leads from the “Hall of Flags” to the upper part of the “Paradise”, from where you pass the “Queen of the Columns” back to the entrance area of the “Entrance Hall”, which houses the “Diamond Stone”, so named because of its sheen . Before you pass the “Fountain Hall ” with the “ Bronze Column ” and “ Acheron's Boat”. In the direction of the exit, you walk through the "Rosary Chapel", in which two parts of a column (stalactite and stalagmite) can be viewed up close. Finally, after climbing stairs, you reach the exit at the top of the outer staircase, which welcomes you with a wide view of the sea.

Taking photos with flash and filming without a tripod is allowed in the cave (as of August 2018) . Particularly effective show effects such as those in the Coves del Drac and the Coves dels Hams are largely avoided here.