Devil's Cave (near Steinau)
| Devil's cave
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 Beehive |
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| Location: | Hessen , Germany | |
| Height : | 272.6 m above sea level NN | |
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Geographic location: |
50 ° 20 '17.2 " N , 9 ° 27' 18" E | |
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| Geology: | Shell limestone | |
| Type: | Stalactite cave | |
| Discovery: | 1584 | |
| Show cave since: | 1927 | |
| Lighting: | electric (since 1927) | |
| Overall length: | 137 meters | |
| Length of the show cave area: |
47 meters; 174 meters with access tunnel |
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| Website: | official page | |
The Teufelshöhle is a stalactite cave in the Main-Kinzig district in Hesse . It is located about three kilometers north of Steinau an der Straße , between the Spessart in the south and the Vogelsberg in the north, on the slope of the Kieskopf. The cave is about 2.5 million years old and a geological natural monument . Jox Mellmann discovered the cave in 1584 after a cow fell into it. The population avoided the cave for a long time because they believed the devil lived in it. The first ascent took place in 1830 when the papermaker's journeyman Walter from Steinau let himself be rappeled into the cave. Starting in 1905, an access tunnel was dug and the cave was expanded within three years . The electrically illuminated show cave was opened in 1927. It is accessible over a length of 174 meters and contains three larger rooms, one of which contains stalactites .
history
discovery
The cave was discovered in the autumn of 1584 by the cowherd Jox Mellmann. A cow had moved away from the herd and fell through the thin layer of earth into a cavity. After a long search, the farmer noticed a dark shaft in which she must have disappeared. He believed that this could only be the work of the devil . Likewise, the residents of the area saw it, who were very superstitious. The hole was then called the devil's hole . To drive the devil out of this hole, the residents threw stones into it. In the forced labor , the farmers managed several months long basalt blocks there. Animals that died from epidemics were also thrown into the hole. Since the "apartment of the devil" could not be filled, the population was of the opinion that the devil was too powerful to subdue him in this way. The fear of him was so great that the farmers only reluctantly went to the meadow. The hole served the Count of Hanau , who resided in Steinau Castle , for a time as a dog cemetery.
Development
In 1830, the papermaker's journeyman Walter from Steinau was the first person to descend into the cave. When bats flew around his head and water dripped onto him, he let himself be pulled out of the hole out of fear. Another inspection of the cave took place in 1898. On June 14th, according to another tradition in July, three men, road builder Lüders as organizer, road attendant Methfessel and roofer Scheer let themselves down. They were equipped with ladders , ropes , crampons and hooks . Torches were used to illuminate them. They landed on a cone of rubble in the Great Cathedral . After this visit it was decided to make the cave accessible. For this purpose, an almost horizontal tunnel was to be dug from the outside to the Great Cathedral. When the necessary money was available, excavations began in 1905.
Three Bavarian miners dug their way into the mountain with hammer and chisel for three years and orientated themselves with a compass . The material that had broken out was transported outside on rails by means of hunts . After a distance of 45 meters, a previously unknown natural cavity covered with stalactites , the chapel , was approached. The Great Cathedral was finally reached after 54 meters. This was several meters high filled with rubble and bones. In order to make it accessible, a total of 300 cubic meters of material such as basalt, flooded clay soil, tree trunks and animal bones were transported out. This created a platform at the same height as the entrance tunnel . During the excavations, a large number of animal bones from dogs , goats , cattle , donkeys , cats and pigs were found , which were thoroughly examined and dated by Fritz Drevermann , Professor of Geology and Paleontology and Rector of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .
In 1911, when the rubble cone was dug up, the skull of a fossil human was allegedly found. The Schlüchterner Zeitung reported on this find on June 24, 1911 in a supplement entitled The skull find in the "Devil's Hole" near Steinau . A Swedish scientist offered 3000 Reichsmarks for the rare skull . There have been many theories about the origin of the skull. The opinions of the experts fluctuated between a young Neanderthal , a pygmy or even a monkey . Professor Otto zur Strassen remarked that the skull was far too well preserved for a fossil and suspected that it was a chimpanzee skull . After about a year and numerous examinations and cleanings, the professor found two holes with traces of rust that came from nails that had been used to fix the lower jaw. It turned out that a pharmacist from Steinau had come into possession of a monkey's skull through his brother who lived in Africa. He had prepared it with chemicals so that it looked like a skull several thousand years old and hid it in the debris cone of the cave so that it was found during the excavations. He wanted to play a trick on the head of the excavations, road builder Lüders.
On November 11, 1913, the association for the development of the stalactite cave was founded. The cave and its surroundings were opened on March 10, 1924 by the chemist, geologist and chairman of the Association for Speleology in Frankfurt am Main e. V. Hans Karl Becker designated as a nature reserve.
Show cave
In 1927 the first electrical lighting system was installed in the cave and the official opening of the cave took place. During the Second World War it was used as an air raid shelter for the residents of Steinau. After the war, the cave was in the American occupation zone . In the chapel, the Americans broke off several stalactites up to a meter long , which grew next to each other and could be reached without a ladder. Another stalactite about a meter long, which was located at a higher point, was spared. In 1952 the cave was made accessible to visitors again. In the 1970s, the stalactite was broken off and stolen by a worker for a client during security work. In 1976, geological and geophysical investigations were carried out in the cave and the surrounding area using the geosonar method, a method in which horizontal measurements can be recorded continuously over long distances.
In 1978, holes were drilled in the immediate vicinity of the Devil's Cave and photographed with probe cameras. However, they were not made accessible. On August 23, 1983, the cave and the surrounding area were again designated as a nature reserve. The cave is managed by the Hessian Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection with an enclosed area of 15 hectares, the name Teufelsloch bei Steinau an der Straße and the number 435-012 . In 1998, the development of a further cavity began, which is entered during guided tours. For several years there have been considerations to modernize the outside area of the cave and to set up a toilet facility. However, this project has so far failed due to nature conservation requirements. The renewal of the lighting system has been planned since 2009. There are light-emitting diodes can be installed to the lamp Flora decrease. In July 2010, the hut in front of the cave burned down completely, although arson cannot be completely ruled out. In autumn 2011 a new hut was to be built with an enclosed space for cave visitors and a toilet facility suitable for the disabled. In the summer of 2012, however, there was still a temporary arrangement.
geology
Emergence
The Teufelshöhle is located in the 230 to 250 million year old lower shell limestone of a karst landscape and was formed about 2.5 million years ago. Caves are very rare in the Spessart , as red sandstone and basalt are predominantly found there. In Hesse it is one of three show caves and one of the two stalactite caves alongside the autumn labyrinth that opened in 2009 . Inflows from lime-saturated waters (including the Ulmbach) penetrated through fine cracks and fissures when the cave was formed from the hanging basaltic rocks . When the lime was dissolved by carbonic acid , stalactites formed and through the formation of vortices in underground watercourses, cavities such as the Great Cathedral were formed . The decisive factor for the formation of the cave was the presence of water-permeable and impermeable rock layers in the ground.
description
The cave system can be reached via a 54 meter long, artificially created tunnel, which serves as the cave entrance and exit and is located at a height of 272.6 meters above sea level . The cave consists of three larger rooms, some of which are connected by narrow corridors. The front part of the tunnel is lined with corrugated iron. At its end is the Great Cathedral , discovered in 1584 , the largest room in the cave. It is 16 meters high and has an almost circular floor plan with a diameter of about eleven meters. At the top it is connected to the outside world by a shaft, the former devil's hole , which means that sunlight partially falls into the cave. The room was originally 25 meters high. The bottom nine meters are made of introduced material. The curvature of the cave was created by the vortex effect of two water veins that milled out the cavity. Their junctions can still be seen. The water enlarged the cave more and more. The ceiling eventually became so thin that a grazing cow broke in about 400 years ago. Due to the air supply, there are no stalactites in the Great Cathedral. The walls of the room consist partly of bright, shiny coatings of lime sinter . The horizontal layers of different rock levels are clearly visible.
From the cathedral it goes into the climatic chamber . For this purpose, a staircase was installed downwards in the floor area of the cathedral, which was filled with fallen debris. Above this is a wooden platform that forms a level with the rest of the floor area of the cathedral. At 34 meters below the surface of the earth, the climatic chamber is the deepest point in the cave. The air in this passage-like room is almost free of dust and the humidity is 98 percent higher than in the other cave areas. This is also where the most water-rich part of the cave is. The air is very carbonated. Patients with whooping cough , asthma , bronchial diseases and, according to the latest findings, neurodermatitis can cure their illness on a bench . A staircase leading upwards and a subsequent narrow corridor leads to the bat chamber , a higher cavity in which bats hibernate. The ceiling of this room is quite thin. Occasionally, roots have already grown through from above, which were last removed in 2009. From there the path leads back to the Great Cathedral.
From there it goes over part of the entrance tunnel on the left on a short corridor into the chapel , the most beautiful room in the cave, which is lined with sinter over a large area . Several stalactites up to one meter long were stolen by the Americans after the Second World War. The cavity has a diameter of about 5.5 meters and a height of about eight meters. There are several stalactite formations in the chapel that are named after their appearance. On one wall, the waterfall reaches a total height of 2.75 meters with an estimated age of 85,000 years. At the entrance to the chapel there is the devil's head , on another wall in a small niche the devil's throat , a stalactite column called a stalagnate , and in front of it his tooth or that of his grandmother. A short flight of stairs with a turning point leads up to the chapel, where a small, inaccessible corridor opens. In this gap there is a stalagmite in the shape of a woven beehive . It has a diameter of about 15 centimeters and is about 30 centimeters high. Its age is estimated to be around 65,000 years. Other stalactite formations are the devil's claw , also called elephant , and the devil's head with a goatee . The oldest stalactites are estimated to be up to 255,000 years old.
Flora and fauna
Wildlife
So far, five different bat species have been identified in the cave . They are among the most highly developed inhabitants of the devil's cave. Mouse-eared bat ( Myotis myotis ), beard ( Myotis brandtii ), long-eared bat ( Plecotus ), fringed bat ( Myotis nattereri ) and the water bat ( Myotis daubentonii ) hibernate there . In autumn they fly into the cave via the Teufelsloch in the Great Cathedral in order to spend the winter in it undisturbed. For nature conservation reasons, the cave is therefore closed to visitors and cave operators from November 1st until Easter. The efforts of the conservationists to remove the property of a show cave and to close it all year round out of consideration for the bats has so far failed. Most bats go to the “bat hotel”, where 800 animals hang close together on the ceiling during the winter. In the entrance gallery of the cave there are different species of spiders (Nesticidae) on the ceiling . In the cave there are some fire salamanders ( Salamandra salamandra ) and amphibians . Some of the crustaceans (Crustacea) and mussel species (Bivalvia) are some of the smallest creatures in the cave .
Lamp flora
In the Devil's Cave of the lamps has a pronounced, as in the glow lamp Flora designated plant community developed. Algae , mosses , fungi and ferns in particular can settle in the area of the light sources . These are mostly miserable forms that could not survive in absolute darkness without artificial lighting. The plants are not evenly distributed. It depends on which spores get into the cave with the seepage water from the earth's surface through fissures. The cave visitors also contribute to the spread of the plants. In some cave areas little or no lamp flora could develop due to the dryness. In the Great Cathedral , the largest room in the cave, and the only one connected to the outside world, the drafts caused pronounced plant growth. The dwarf fern grows there one to five millimeters a year.
tourism
From April 20th to the end of September there are daily guided tours. The cave can be reached from the road from Steinau to Grebenhain . From the parking lot on the street it's about a ten minute walk to the cave. Handicapped people can drive the motor vehicle over a gravel path to the cave. The guided tours go over easily accessible paths and stairs to the individual cave sections. In the cave there is a constant temperature of around eight to nine degrees Celsius with a humidity of over 80 percent. A tour takes about 30 minutes. The path leads over a few steps to the climatic chamber and back and in the chapel to the beehive . A path of around 174 meters is covered, with part of the cave and the access tunnel being accessed twice. The length of the accessible natural cavities is 47 meters. The cave is accessible for wheelchair users over a length of 150 meters. Events for children are also held in the cave, for example on Halloween . As with many show caves, the number of visitors has recently decreased somewhat. While there were around 25,000 visitors per year around the year 2000, the number of visitors has now leveled off at 16,000. This makes the Teufelshöhle one of the less visited show caves in Germany.
See also
- List of show caves in Germany
- the devil's cave of the same name near Pottenstein in Bavaria
literature
- Trade and Tourist Association Steinau an der Straße e. V. (Ed.): Stalagmites - stalactites - Teufelshöhle Steinau . Thaler advertisement, 2008.
- Trade and Tourist Association Steinau an der Straße e. V. (Ed.): Stalactite cave Steinau - Steinau an der Straße . Graphics company Carl Kaestner GmbH, Steinau an der Straße.
- Thomas Reischmann, Adalbert Schraft: Hesse's underworld - show caves and visitor mines in Hesse . Ed .: Hessian State Office for Environment and Geology. Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-89026-360-1 .
- Stephan Kempe, Wilfried Rosendahl (ed.): Höhlen - Verborgene Welten . Primus Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-89678-611-1 , p. 153 .
- World full of secrets - caves . In: Stephan Kempe (Ed.): HB Bildatlas special edition 17 . HB Verlags- und Vertriebs-Gesellschaft, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-616-06739-1 , p. 98 .
- Hans Binder, Anke Luz, Hans Martin Luz: Show caves in Germany . Aegis Verlag, Ulm 1993, ISBN 3-87005-040-3 , p. 62-63 .
Web links
- Stalactite cave "Teufelshöhle" near Steinau an der Straße
- Teufelshöhle near show caves in Germany
- Teufelshöhle - stalactite cave in Steinau near Bergwinkel
- Teufelshöhle - stalactite cave in Steinau at the trade and tourist association Steinau an der Straße
- About exploring the Steinauer Teufelshöhle
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p trade and tourist association Stadt Steinau an der Straße e. V. (Ed.): Stalagmites - stalactites - Teufelshöhle Steinau . Thaler advertisement, 2008.
- ^ A b Hans Binder, Anke Lutz, Hans Martin Lutz: Show caves in Germany . Aegis Verlag, Ulm 1993, ISBN 3-87005-040-3 , p. 62 .
- ↑ a b Städtisches Verkehrsbüro (Ed.): Stalactite Cavern Devil's Den - Steinau an der Strasse . (American English).
- ↑ a b c Teufelshöhle - stalactite cave in Steinau. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 30, 2010 ; Retrieved October 12, 2009 .
- ↑ Bernd Pfanzelter in Rhein-Lahn-Info: Caves and Cave Research in the Rhein-Lahn District ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed October 5, 2009)
- ↑ a b c d e f g Trade and Tourist Association Steinau an der Straße e. V. (Ed.): Stalactite cave Steinau - Steinau an der Straße . Graphics company Carl Kaestner GmbH, Steinau an der Straße.
- ↑ Steinaubachtal, Teufelsloch and Almosenwiese near Steinau adStr. (No longer available online.) Natura 2000 Hessen, August 20, 2004, formerly in the original ; Retrieved October 12, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Teufelshöhle reopened after fire ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Steinau starts the new season with many attractions
- ↑ Hesse's "Underworld" - show caves in Hesse. (PDF; 900 kb) Hessian State Office for Environment and Geology, accessed on October 18, 2009 .
- ↑ Show caves. (No longer available online.) Association of German Cave and Karst Researchers e. V., archived from the original on April 18, 2010 ; Retrieved October 18, 2009 .
- ↑ Thomas Reischmann, Adalbert Schraft: Hessens Unterwelt - Show caves and visitor mines in Hessen . Ed .: Hessian State Office for Environment and Geology. Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-89026-360-1 , p. 140 .
- ↑ Steinau. Retrieved on October 18, 2009 (information from the Steinau Tourist Office).
