Oswald Cave
| Oswald Cave
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 Oswald Cave |
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| Location: | Engelhardsberg, Franconian Switzerland , Germany | |
| Height : | 450 m above sea level NN | |
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Geographic location: |
49 ° 48 '0.4 " N , 11 ° 16' 20.3" E | |
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| Cadastral number: | C 6 / 6133-1041 | |
| Type: | Passage cave | |
| Show cave since: | No | |
| Overall length: | approx. 65 m | |
The Oswald Cave is a natural karst cave near Muggendorf, a district of the Upper Franconian community of Wiesenttal in the Forchheim district in Bavaria .
description
The through cave is located on the Hohlen Berg , about 800 meters east of Muggendorf.
Genetically, it belongs to a single system with the Witzenhöhle and the Wunderhöhle . Only when the Wiesent deepened the caves were separated from each other. The Oswald Cave is a 65 meter long passage cave . The north entrance is approx. 12 meters wide and 6 meters high. There are still the remains of the foundations of a former wall, probably from the time of the Thirty Years War . The cave served the population as a shelter and later as a rock cellar. The largest room in the cave, the “Great Hall”, is around 40 meters long and divided by two rock pillars. In this area there are often beautiful ice formations in winter. Shortly behind the entrance there is a mostly dry rock basin on the eastern cave wall, the so-called Weihkessel. According to the legend , it served as a cultic water basin for the priests who celebrated their cultic festivals in the nearby Witzenhöhle . There are a total of five transverse clefts in the cave, some of which have impressive expansions. There is nothing left of the once rich stalactite jewelry. In addition to highly polluted sinter cascades yet warts Inter and Deckenkolke to find. At the end of the large hall, a narrow and gently sloping passage leads to the southern cave entrance. This is only about 1.5 meters high at its lowest points. The south entrance is 5 meters wide and 2 meters high and was previously closed with a door.
A memorial plaque at the north entrance commemorates the first cave explorers Esper , Georg August Goldfuß and Johann Christian Rosenmüller .
The cave is designated as a geotope (474H005) and natural monument (ND-04581) by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment . The cave is registered as C 6 / 6133-1041 in the Fränkische Alb cave cadastre (HFA).
history
The cave owes its name to a hermit named Oswald from the chivalric novel Heinrich von Neideck . The novel was translated from English into German by the Erlangen lawyer Georg Friedrich Rebmann in 1791. Until then, the cave was only known as the "hollow hole".
Access
The Oswald Cave is freely accessible all year round. The Frankenweg (marking: red cross bar) and Heinrich-Uhl-Weg (marking: red vertical line) lead through the cave . It can be reached on the hiking trail, starting at the hiking car park above Muggendorf on the road to Doos. Because of the low height, a light source is recommended when crossing the cave. The wonder cave is located directly at the south entrance . Nearby, at the Hohlen Berg , are the Witzenhöhle and the Doktorshöhle .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Geotope: Oswaldhöhle, Witzenhöhle and Wundershöhle SE from Muggendorf (accessed on March 22, 2020).
literature
- Stephan Lang: Höhlen in Franken - hiking guide into the underworld of Franconian Switzerland with new tours. Nuremberg 2006, ISBN 978-3-418-00385-6 .
- Brigitte Kaulich, Hermann Schaaf: Small guide to caves around Muggendorf. 3rd, unchanged edition. Natural History Society - Department for Cave and Karst Research, Nuremberg 2002, ISBN 3-922877-00-1 , pp. 30–35.
- Hardy Schabdach: Underground Worlds - Caves of Franconian and Hersbruck Switzerland . Verlag Reinhold Lippert, Ebermannstadt 2000, ISBN 3-930125-05-6 , pp. 15-17.
- Friedrich Herrmann: Caves of the Franconian and Hersbrucker Switzerland . 2nd, improved edition. Hans Carl Verlag, Nuremberg 1991, ISBN 3-418-00356-7 , p. 59.
