Schönebecker cave

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The Schönebecker Höhle or Herscheider Höhle is a 118 m long cave northeast of the Schönebecke settlement in the Herscheid municipality . The Schönebeck cave was designated on October 1st, 1998 with the Herscheid landscape plan as a natural monument with a size of 1.1  hectares . The cave was designated as a European protected area ( FFH area ) Schönebecker Höhle DE-4712-302 in 2005.

Cave history

The cave was discovered in 1870 during blasting work in the local limestone quarry. In the following years the entrance was buried. In November 1927 the entrance was exposed again when searching for water. The cave is a crevice cave that was created when the mountains there unfolded. No finds from prehistoric times have been made in the cave. Stories that the residents of the surrounding farmsteads fled there during the Thirty Years' War are not true, as the cave was only discovered in 1870. During the Second World War the cave served as an air raid shelter.

Cave description

The cave is located in the lower slope area of ​​the Schwengelhahnes mountain . The entrance to the cave is very deep in a cliff. The cave is very spacious in the front part. From the main corridor, several crawlways lead deeper into the mountain. The Schönebeck Cave was formed in a calcareous lens of the upper Middle Devonian in the Unnenberg layers . The cave is water-bearing in the form of dripping and seeping water. The cave is used as winter quarters for seven bat species. The rare species of pond bat and great mouse- eared bat are regularly detected. The cave also serves as winter quarters for amphibians , butterflies and two-winged birds . The vortex worm Rectocephala schneideri and the cave shrimp Niphargus fontanus are found in the cave . The cave has been closed with a grille to protect bats from the public. The cave is surrounded by deciduous forest.

literature

  • Märkischer Kreis: Landscape plan No. 5 Herscheid , Lüdenscheid 1998.

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 12 ′ 17 "  N , 7 ° 43 ′ 38.3"  E