Bračkova špilja is a cave and

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

Zagorje Hrvatsko Zagorje (; Croatian Zagorje; ''zagorje'' is Croatian language, Croatian for 'backland' or 'behind the hills') is a cultural region in northern Croatia, traditionally separated from the country's capital Zagreb by the Medvednica mount ...

about long, located on the north slope of the

Ivanščica Ivanščica () or Ivančica is a mountain in northern Croatia. The highest peak is the eponymous Ivanščica at . Together with Strahinjščica it forms the Očura massif. The rivers of Bednja (river), Bednja, Lonja, Krapina (river), Krapina and ...

massif. It is a dry horizontal cave with a wide entrance at the foot of a short cliff. It is sometimes highlighted as the most prominent cave on Ivanščica, and has the most extensive literature of any of its caves. It is difficult to access, but a tourist path has been planned.

Name

Bračkova špilja is not to be confused with Bračkova jama, a nearby

pit cave A pit cave, shaft cave or vertical cave—or often simply called a pit (in the US) and pothole or pot (in the UK); jama in Slavic languages scientific and colloquial vocabulary (borrowed since early research in the Western Balkan Dinaric Alpin ...

deep also known as Markova jama na Ivanščici.

Description

The cave is located in the

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

of the Šumec, which cuts through the Dubrava peak. It is horizontal, sloped slightly upwards towards the back, narrower both horizontally and vertically with progression. The inclination was sufficient to prevent the accumulation of sediment on the cave floor The width of the cave near the entrance is about . The entrance is difficult to reach for reasons of

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

. A map of the cave drawn in 2008 by Hrvoje Cvitanović and colleagues was published in 2012. An older map is kept at the ''Arhiv Arheološkega odsjeka'' of the . Continuously updated databases with information on the cave include the ''Speleological and Biospeleological Cadastre of Varaždin County'' () begun by Roman Ozimec in 2008, and the national ''Cadastre of Speleological Objects of the Republic of Croatia'' (). Both are closed to the public but excerpts from the latter are available at ''Bioportal''.

History

Bračkova špilja has long been known to locals. According to a

Lepoglava prison Lepoglava Penitentiary (), also referred to in English as Lepoglava prison, is a maximum security prison in northern Croatia administed by the Croatian Ministry of Justice. It is located in, and named after, the town of Lepoglava, Varaždin Cou ...

guard asked by , who had found an

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

of the

Mother of God ''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are or (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer ...

inside the cave in 1947, the Pauline monks at the former monastery had placed the icon there, allegedly to deter visitors from "

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

" practices. In literature, the cave was first listed by in 1905 among the caves of Zagorje. Subsequent mentions came in 1946, 1961, 1990, 2001, and so on. The cave was featured and labelled on the 1979

topographic map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...

of scale) 1:5000, and later on the 2003 topographic map. Long known to be a potential archaeological site, Stjepan Vuković carried out a test dig in 1947. After one of his students discovered of a "Slavic" pottery

sherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

with a wavy line on the small plateau in front of the cave, Vuković happened on the cave entrance on the 5th of April that year. Their plateau excavations had been carried out during

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The carried out a new archaeological survey of Bračkova špilja in 2008.

Climate

The

air temperature Atmospheric temperature is a measure of temperature at different levels of the Earth's atmosphere. It is governed by many factors, including incoming solar radiation, humidity, and altitude. The abbreviation MAAT is often used for Mean Annual Air ...

of the cave is , with a

soil temperature The physical properties of soil, in order of decreasing importance for ecosystem services such as crop production, are texture, structure, bulk density, porosity, consistency, temperature, colour and resistivity. Soil texture is determined by th ...

of . The relative humidity is 94%, and the

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

concentration 875 ppm at .

Archaeology

Like the nearby sites of , Vindija, Šincekova špilja, and Veternica, the Bračkova špilja site includes finds from the

Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. By the

Early Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progr ...

, the number of inhabited caves in the region had decreased, but still included Bračkova špilja, Mačkova špilja, Vindija, and Veternica. Unlike the Bronze Age, no Iron Age

hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

s have been found. Some finds in and around the cave have been dated as late as

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

and the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. Being a cave of small dimensions and difficult access. Špoljar assumes that Bračkova špilja was only used as a temporary refuge, despite the excavation of a thick ash layer on the plateau before the cave. Archaeological remains are kept at the Varaždin City Museum under inventory numbers 1851–1858 and 6391 A–B.

Biology

Pseudoscorpion Pseudoscorpions, also known as false scorpions or book scorpions, are small, scorpion-like arachnids belonging to the order Pseudoscorpiones, also known as Pseudoscorpionida or Chelonethida. Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans bec ...

s of the genus '' Chthonus'' were found in the cave in the 2008 expedition. A species of

cave spider ''Meta menardi'', the European cave spider, is a long-jawed orb-weaving spider (family Tetragnathidae). It is also known as the orbweaving cave spider and the cave orbweaver. Habitat They have a natural range extending from Scandinavia to Nor ...

was photographed remains unidentified, as with the

Acari Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as ea ...

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

Staphylinidae The rove beetles are a family (biology), family (Staphylinidae) of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra (wing covers) that typically leave more than half of their abdominal segments exposed. With over 66,000 species in thousand ...

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

, and

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advance ...

species also found.

Tourism

A tourist path has been planned from Šumec to Bračkova jama and Bračkova špilja, and from there to

Voska luknja Voska luknja is a cave on the north slope of the Ivanščica massif. It is a diagonal cave, so its horizontal length of is much smaller than its total passage length of . As mapped, it is the second deepest cave on Ivanščica behind Hanžekova ...

and

Voska špilja Voska is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Emanuel Viktor Voska (1875–1960), American intelligence officer * Matt Voska, American pilot and founder of Flytenow * Václav Voska (1918–1982), Czech actor See also * Voskan * ...

, then to Šumec and

Karlova špilja Karlova špilja is a cave in Zagorje about long, located on the north slope of the Ivanščica massif. It is a dry horizontal cave with a passage length of . It is difficult to access, but a tourist path has been planned. Its close proximity to t ...

, then to

Generalka Generalka is a cave in Zagorje with a horizontal passage length, located on the north slope of the Ivanščica massif, above the rock quarry Vudelja that opened in 1935 for road building purposes. It is a dry horizontal cave, and small, but comp ...

and Polušpilja Generalski Stol.

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

Novosti i obavijesti Hrvatskog biospeleološkog društva
News page of the HBSD (explorers of Bračkova špilja)
Novosti Speleološke udruge "Kraševski zviri"
News page of Kraševski zviri (explorers of Bračkova špilja) * Video of the cave: {{cite web , date=2014-01-05 , author=Vrisak tišine , title=Bračkova špilja - Ivanščica , url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS6Ct4Wbl_Y , via=YouTube , language=hr Caves of Croatia Archaeological sites in Croatia