Sea grotto

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The Seegrotte is a former gypsum mine in the Lower Austrian market town of Hinterbrühl , about 15 km south of Vienna , which served as a show mine from 1932 , but was last closed in 2019. The new owners (2020) announced a complete, extensive renovation - with the aim of reopening.

Entrance to the show mine (1996)

Seven springs feed the largest underground lake in Europe with an area of ​​6,200 m². It doesn't have a natural drain. The height of the water level is maintained by pumping around 50–60 cubic meters of water into the Mödlingbach every night . On average the lake is 1.2 m deep.

With an area of ​​6000 m 2 , the underground lake of St. Leonard in the Swiss Saint-Léonard , Wallis , is somewhat smaller, but of course was created by leaching a cave in plaster.

history

The local gypsum deposits , which can also be found near Preinsfeld near Heiligenkreuz, were already known in the 18th century. In 1848 a miller who came across plaster of paris at a depth of 5 m while hitting a well began mining plaster of paris , which was ground in a Mödlinger mill. In 1912, a blast caused a water ingress of more than 20,000 cubic meters, which made further operation impossible. For years the mine, in which a large lake had formed, stood still.

In 1918, Friedrich Fischer (1876–1955), a Viennese liqueur manufacturer, bought the abandoned mine. Originally he wanted to set up an entertainment establishment. Later he tried growing mushrooms , but it didn't work because of the low temperature. In 1920 he had the 200 m long conveyor tunnel , which was still mostly lined with wood from the mining era , arched with bricks. Electricity was introduced into the mine in the early 1930s. The show mine was opened on June 8, 1932 with an old military pontoon and an electric boat. In 1936 a new tenant took over the Seegrotte, which had become well known in the meantime and attracted numerous visitors. In 1937/1938 around 50,000 guests visited the tunnels with the underground lake.

Second World War

In 1943 the German Reich began to move important warehouses and factories underground. Originally, they wanted to store edible fats in the tunnels, but this failed because of the high humidity. Large quantities of technical fats were stored in barrels. Cultural goods were also stored to protect against war damage. During this time, the operation continued as a show mine.

It was only on 1 May 1944, the tunnels were seized and in a aircraft factory of Heinkel works under the pseudonym lobster established because the place before bombing was relatively safe. This was proven by the first bomb hit on May 24, 1944, which did not cause any damage inside. For the production of aircraft, the lake was pumped out and a flat floor surface was concreted. Tunnels from the second and third level, in the direction of Neugasse, which should be passable with cars, were never completed and filled again after the war.

The hulls of the Heinkel He 162 (also Salamander ) were built as prototypes in it, transported out in parts and assembled on the site of today 's Vienna Airport in Schwechat. In December 1944 around 600 concentration camp prisoners were employed there under the supervision of around 170 skilled workers. The concentration camp prisoners were housed in the Mauthausen concentration camp branch and had to work in the tunnels under inhumane conditions. A memorial erected in 1988 commemorates this. This was initiated by Pastor Franz Jantsch .

In some places a marble and bronze statues were made in Laxenburg located Franzensburg walled for protection from war damage.

Further development after the war

At the end of the war, when an Austrian sergeant intervened, only a few of the explosive bombs previously laid by the SS were detonated. Nevertheless, there was great damage. In autumn 1945 the tenant began to clear the entire facility, machinery and aircraft parts. At the beginning of 1946, however, the Seegrotte was confiscated by the Soviet occupation forces . It was not until six months later that approval was received to build a show mine again. Guided tours could start again in 1948 and the lake was slowly filled again. At Easter 1949 boat trips could be started again.

In 1984 the lessee withdrew from the Seegrotte and the descendants of Friedrich Fischer took over the mine again.

2004 boat crash

On May 31, 2004 a boat with 28 tourists capsized. Four Germans and a Belgian drowned because they were trapped under the boat. According to the report, the cause of the accident is mainly due to the incorrect construction of the boat. The 2000 kg trimaran had an asymmetrical construction. The boat should only have been approved for 25, but not for 29 people. As a result, the freeboard was lower and the boat was in fact always capsized .

Commemorative plaque of the boat accident in the Barbarakapelle of the Seegrotte

The reconstruction of the accident showed that the mass was unevenly distributed, the passengers on one side weighed a total of about 200 kg more than on the other. It could not be ruled out whether the accident was triggered by one of the passengers standing up. It is certain that the skipper adhered to the company's internal regulations and did not take more than 28 people on board. He maneuvered the boat with the usual care.

In the following process, the following facts led to the guilty verdicts against the managing directors and the state officials:

  • In order to be able to steer this type of boat, the skipper would have needed a small captain's license. The boat drivers in the Seegrotte were only semi-skilled workers.
  • The state authorities did not test the boat under full load conditions, and only a few people took the test drive. The heel angle was therefore acceptable in the test ; when fully occupied, however, there was a risk of capsizing. The boat did not meet the legal requirements and, due to the asymmetrical structure, did not have the required stability.

On July 3, 2007, the Appeals Senate at the Higher Regional Court of Vienna pronounced the now legally binding judgments. The managing directors and the state official who had approved the boat were each sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment, 5 months of which were unconditional and the rest were suspended. The skipper received a conditional sentence of 12 months. The judge charged the condemned with “bottomless sloppiness, willful concealment of the defects and devastating fault for the accident”. The skipper should have found out that a small captain's license is required to steer the trimaran; he was credited with mitigating the fact that the " negligent public endangerment " in his case occurred unconsciously.

Continued operation

In July 2004, boat trips were resumed with a different type of boat and an improved safety concept. As of 2018, there are 2 ships in operation, each with 25 seats for passengers on the railing and 1 for the boat driver : Eleonore has the approval number N-10280, Monika N-10281; they are named after the first names of the owners of the grotto.

The operators state 250,000 visitors in 2017, and the company is open daily all year round.

Ban 2019

During a routine inspection by the East Mining Authority on May 24, 2019, structural deficits were found. The operator Seegrotte Hinterbrühl Schaubergwerk GmbH immediately closed the grotto for "maintenance work". The operator did not give a statement to the ORF. The spokesman for the Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism, Daniel Kosak, believes that the period of suspension during the entire summer, which is usually busy, is likely, because the deficiencies listed in the decision must be removed.

New owners 2020

On the website www.seegrotte.at you will find out on August 2, 2020 about the averting of bankruptcy and thus the closure of the show mine.

The new owners and managing directors of the show mine are now Ing. Christian Kloibhofer and Mag. Pia Maria Krebs, from KS Thermalsonden GmbH, Quarzweg 1, 8793 Trofaiach .

It is intended to "completely renovate" the grotto at great expense. Progress reports have been announced. The website is being updated and is in progress. (As of August 2, 2020)

Location and spatial structure today

A drawing of the longitudinal section extends over a length of 450 m.

The entrance is at the foot of the Wagnerkogel. A gently rising tunnel leads under the steeper mountain slope about 120 m into the interior of the mountain, where tunnel and bottom 1 continue for about 300 m. At this level are numerous cross tunnels, the 300 m 2 small "blue lake" with a water temperature of 8 ° C, the giant hall and a spring emerging from a natural cave. 3 ventilation shafts lead vertically up to the daylight in the area of ​​the gently rounded summit of the mountain.

A few steps higher are the smaller, oldest mining areas (1st horizon), which were opened up from 1848 onwards via the 25 m high and 11 m wide shaft "winding tower" from a flatter section high up on the mountain. With a built-in wooden staircase, it now serves as a second day exit.

From level 1 (2nd civil engineering) you can descend 83 steps via the Bremsbergsteig to the jetty on level 2, which is flooded throughout (3rd civil engineering). Measured from the bottom of the lake, the cover with the mountain is up to 65 m. The large lake - similar to the sole above - forms an incomplete network of three longitudinal and about 10 transverse tunnels.

Horses on a gopel drove the elevator machine for the plaster-filled dogs . They had their own stable underground, stayed in the mountain for up to 20 years and became blind as a result.

The air temperature in the mine is 9 ° C all year round. The resting chamber for the miners, which is only slightly within the ascent of the entrance tunnel in a bay, is the warmest part of the mine at 12 ° C.

Others

A memorial plaque in the Barbarastollen today commemorates Friedrich Fischer. The Seegrotte is run by his successors as a private company. Today the Seegrotte with the largest underground lake in Europe is a tourist attraction , 250,000 people visit it annually. Parts of the grotto served as a film set for the Walt Disney film The Three Musketeers in 1993 , a dragon boat is a relic of it.

In 2013 the American Broadcasting Company selected the Seegrotte next to Kreuzenstein Castle as the location for the reality show "The Quest".

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the show mine in 2012, the musical The Man of La Mancha was staged in the ballroom, the Barbarastollen, of the mine . From this year on there were regular theater performances by the association “ Bühne im Berg ”. In 2013, a short version of Faust I was offered. The last production with the Blue Angel by Peter Turrini was scheduled for 2016, as the approval from the authorities also expired.

Every year on the 1st Sunday in December, a Barbara party is celebrated in the Barbarastollen .

The water of the lake in the Seegrotte comes from the groundwater. The groundwater can cause leaching in remaining gypsum deposits and the formation of cavities. The East Mining Authority has given several indications for the area of ​​Hinterbrühl in which the Seegrotte is located, which led to the imposition of a building ban in 2017. The effects of this on the Seegrotte (in which the gypsum has already been broken down) has not been published.

literature

  • Hubert Mitter: Lisa and Languste - The ´Secret thing Hinterbrühl´ 1944-1945 , 2020, increase - publisher ISBN 9783200069862

Web links

Commons : Seegrotte Hinterbrühl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Gyps breaks in Gaaden, between Briel and Heiligenkreutz, and the Gyps is burned there too." A. Stütz, 1807, onA, quoted from Herwig Holzer: Report on deposit research work 1962 . In: Negotiations of the Federal Geological Institute . Issue 3 (final issue). Vienna 1963, chapter stones and earth. b) Gypsum: Preinfeld (Lower Austria) , p. 67 ( pdf , geologie.ac.at).
  2. ↑ Joh. Cžjžek: Gypsian fractures in Lower Austria and the neighboring parts of the country. Communicated at the meeting of the kk geol. RA on March 18, 1851. III. Contribution. In: Yearbook of the Imperial Royal Geological Institute . Volume II, Volume I January, February, March. Vienna 1851, chapter "Northern train." 1) "In der Brühl near Mödling", p. 28 (Articles 27–33) ( Google eBook, full view ).
  3. ↑ a b c The Seegrotte, a show mine for 80 years in: Der Hinterbrühler, March 2012 / No. 1.
  4. ↑ Development of the He 162 ( Memento of the original from October 2, 2013 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 January 21, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.historyfacts.biz
  5. ↑ Concentration camp folder of the Hinterbrühl parish, Jakob Mitterhöfer , 2013.
  6. ↑ Court imposed prison sentences (OLG judgment) orf.at, July 3, 2007, accessed July 27, 2014
  7. ↑ Tragic boat accident in the Seegrotte. In: Gottfried Bauer / BFK Mödling / fireworld.at. December 5, 2004, accessed July 27, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Text on answering machine from June 6, 2019.
  9. ↑ Seegrotte Hinterbrühl closed due to defects orf.at, June 6, 2019, accessed June 6, 2019.
  10. ↑ Upper floor> Entrance> Image longitudinal section seegrotte.at, accessed July 25, 2018.
  11. ↑ From place of work to excursion destination: the Seegrotte Hinterbrühl freets.at, Claudia, July 8, 2015, accessed July 26, 2018.
  12. ↑ Seegrotte as a backdrop for a new US reality show ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. NOe24.at, June 14, 2014, accessed June 23, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.noe24.at
  13. ↑ Stage in the mountain ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. buehne-im-berg.at, accessed February 2, 2012. - Not available July 26, 2018. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.buehne-im-berg.at
  14. ↑ "Faust" again in the Seegrotte. In: noe.orf.at. January 11, 2015, accessed January 11, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Victoria Hanser: "Faust Part 1" by Goethe in the stage in the mountain in Hinterbrühl (Lower Austria). In: PageWizz. March 2, 2014, accessed January 11, 2015 .
  16. ^ For the time being, last production in the Seegrotte orf.at, November 22nd, 2015, accessed November 22nd, 2015.
  17. ^ Announcement of the community. Building block regulation in zones 1 and 2 according to § 35 Lower Austrian Regional Planning Act 2014. (accessed May 14, 2017). - Not available on July 26, 2018.
  18. ↑ plaster: building ban in Hinterbrühl. In: The Hinterbrühler. Year 2017, Issue 1, p. 9. Letter from the Mayor. P. 3.

Coordinates: 48 ° 5 ′ 9 ″  N , 16 ° 15 ′ 27 ″  E