Lurgrotto

Lurgrotto
Entrance to the Lurgrotte near Semriach
Location:	Tanneben ( Styria )
Height :	641  m above sea level A.
Geographic location:	47 ° 13 '37.3 "  N , 15 ° 22' 46.5"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 13 '37.3 "  N , 15 ° 22' 46.5"  E
Cadastral number:	2836 / 1a-f
Geology:	Schöcklkalk
Type:	Water cave, stalactite cave
Discovery:	1894
Show cave since:	1895
Lighting:	electrical, LED since 2014
Overall length:	5975 m
Level difference:	221 m
Length of the show cave area:	approx. 4 km
Particularities:	can be viewed from the Semriach entrance: the world's largest, free-hanging stalactite and one of the ten largest cave domes in the world. Visible from the Peggau entrance: 2 km to Blocksberg
Website:	Entrance Semriach: www.lurgrotte.at Peggau entrance: www.lurgrotte.com

The Lurgrotte is the largest active water cave in Austria . It is located about 25 kilometers north of Graz and crosses the Tanneben , a karst area between the places Semriach and Peggau ( cave entrance ). The Lurbach flows through them from Semriach down into the Murtal .

The cave was officially discovered by the Italian cave explorer Max Brunello on April 1st, 1894. However, the Lurgrotto was only really known through a disaster. On April 28, 1894, seven speleologists climbed into the Lurgrotte despite heavy rain . The rising water locked them in the cave for nine days. Only after an elaborate rescue operation requiring the intervention of Emperor Franz Joseph I with over 1,000 helpers, miners and divers could the trapped be rescued alive.

In February 1905, members of the Styrian Cave Club , section of the Austrian Tourist Club, rediscovered 1002 meters of caves.

In the 1920s, the cave explorer Hermann Mayer worked with his father on the development of the "melting grotto" in the Peggau part of the Lurgrotte. They also tried to find a connection between the Peggau part and the part coming from Semriach. On November 26, 1924, the path was clear after an explosive shot over the 5th siphon , but the first crossing was not possible until February 13, 1935.

On May 23, 1926, the cave researcher Poldi Fuhrich was killed while exploring the ghost shaft inside the cave. The Poldi-Fuhrich-Dom was named after her even deeper in the mountain.

On February 24, 1927, the Lurgrotte in Peggau, including a restaurant, two villas and 35,359 square meters of land, was auctioned in Frohnleiten , with the hope that the Lurgrotte could be maintained as a local company . - At the (further) auction of the Lurgrotte and its extensive realities from the bankruptcy estate of the commercial credit institution, A.-G., held on July 8, 1927 at the Frohnleiten District Court , the reality was assigned to the wine wholesaler Pezzi, who was responsible for the generous design of the Lurgrotte and planned the construction of a grotto railway .

The first complete crossing of the approximately five-kilometer-long cave was made in 1935. In the following period, work began on expanding the Lurgrotte as a show cave with the help of footbridges and tunnels . From 1962 it was possible for visitors to hike through the entire cave, until on July 15, 1975, large parts of the buildings were washed away in a storm . Today, the Lurgrotte can be walked around two kilometers from both sides with guided tours.

From Semriach, electrically illuminated areas lead to the Great Cathedral . Only when the water is low in winter (November to March, as of January 2019), guided tours only for adults take place one kilometer deeper through the ghost shaft and areas whose pathways are repeatedly destroyed by floods. The same applies to the lower entrance in Peggau.

After his death on October 16, 1971, the cave explorer Hermann Mayer was buried in an urn in a prepared niche in the "Victory Hall" of the Lurgrotte Peggau, in accordance with his last will.

The Lurbach, which runs underground there, flows through the cave. This sinks into stream shrinkage near Semriach and reappears in Peggau in the Hammerbach spring . The Schmelzbach spring that rises at the Peggau cave entrance is only connected to the Lurbach-Hammerbach system when the water level is high.

Stalactites in the large cathedral of the Lurgrotte Semriach

The Austrian guitarist Johanna Beisteiner at a concert in the Lurgrotte Peggau on August 28, 2011.

literature

• V (incenz) Pollack: Technical work on the Lurloch near Semriach in Styria . In: Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects . (ZÖIAV). Volume 46.1894, issue 20, ZDB -ID 2534647-7 , p. 289 f. - Full text online (PDF; 12.8 MB) .
• Wilhelm Putick: The Lurloch in the glare of technology . In: Journal of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects . (ZÖIAV). Volume 46.1894, Issue 36, ZDB -ID 2534647-7 , pp. 437-441 and Table XV. - Full text online (PDF; 9.2 MB) .
• Karl Zweyer: Buried alive for nine days in the Lurloche. Experiences of a cave explorer. With a preliminary report on the work undertaken to rescue the cave explorers trapped in Lurloche near Semriach . Hans Wagner, Graz 1894. - OBV .
• The seven cave explorers in Lurloch and their rescue from danger of death . Fritz, Vienna 1894, OBV .
• Wilhelm Setz: The rescue work in the Lurloch cave near Semriach - along with a tarpaulin . Self-published, Graz 1902, OBV .
• Rudolph Staindl: Revelations of the Lurloch Affair (etc.) . Bileg, Vienna 1909, OBV .
• Rudolf Saar: The Lur Cave - near Peggau in Styria (formerly the melting grotto) . Austrian cave guides, Volume 3, ZDB-ID 677015-0 (old). Austrian State Printing Office, Vienna 1922, OBV .
• Ralf Benischke (Red.): Festschrift Lurgrotte 1894–1994 - on the occasion of the centenary of the encirclement of cave explorers by floods and their salvation . State Association for Speleology in Styria, Graz 1994.  -  OBV .
• Heinrich and Ingrid Kusch: Caves of Styria - fantastic worlds . Steirische Verlagsgesellschaft, Graz 1998, ISBN 3-85489-007-9 .
• Robert Bouchal, Josef Wirth: Cave Guide Austria - Over 100 caves with sketches, plans, access descriptions and 150 photos . Pichler Verlag, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-85431-234-2 , pp. 194-198.

Web links

Commons : Lurgrotte  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Lurgrotte - Semriach side
• Lurgrotte - Peggau side
• Florian A. Fladerer & Gerald Fuchs: Middle Paleolithic storage area in the Lurgrotte-Peggau. ARGIS Archäologie Service GmbH, accessed on November 30, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Members of a cave research association who lacked adequate training . - See: The "Speleologists". In:  Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung , year 1894, No. 30, May 13, 1894 (XV. Year), p. 484 middle. (Online at ANNO ). .
2. ↑ To the rescue of the Luegloche. In:  Badener Bezirks-Blatt , May 9, 1894, p. 5, bottom left. (Online at ANNO ). .
3. ↑ The cave explorers in Lueloch. In:  Die Presse , Abendblatt, May 5, 1894, p. 2, bottom left. (Online at ANNO ). .
4. ↑ The cave explorers in the Luegloch. Found alive !. In:  Die Presse , May 7, 1894, p. 1, center right. (Online at ANNO ). .
5. ↑ A commemoration ceremony in the Lurloch. In:  Neue Freie Presse , May 1, 1904, p. 8, center right. (Online at ANNO ). .
6. ↑ Various communications. (...) From the Lurloch. In:  Der Naturfreund , year 1905, No. 4, April 15, 1905 (IX. Year), p. 31, top right. (Online at ANNO ). .
7. ↑ ^{a b} Death and the Cave (accessed October 15, 2011)
8. ^ Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures. Sebastian Lux Verlag, Munich 1963, p. 176
9. ↑ The Styrian Lurgrotte is auctioned. In:  Badener Zeitung , February 16, 1927, p. 5, top center. (Online at ANNO ).
10. ↑ All sorts of things. (...) Auction of the Lurgrotte. In:  Badener Zeitung , July 13, 1927, p. 4, bottom right. (Online at ANNO ). .
11. ↑ http://www.kleinezeitung.at/s/steiermark/graz/4645125/Reportage_In-den-versperrten-Schluchten-der-Lurgrotte (Sabine Hoffmann :) In the locked gorges of the Lurgrotte, kleinezeitung.at/, January 20th 2015, accessed July 18, 2016.
12. ↑ Hydrogeology of the Lur cave system (PDF file)