Topolnița Cave ( ro, Peștera Topolnița) is a karst cave located in
Mehedinți County
Mehedinți County () is a county ( ro, județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia and Bulgaria. It is mostly located in the historical province of Oltenia, with one municipality (Orșova) and three communes ( Dubova, Eșelnița, and Svinița) ...
, Romania.
It is the fourth-longest cave in Romania: only
Peștera Vântului Peștera Vântului (Wind Cave) is the largest cave in Romania, with a length of almost 52 km (total length of passages). It is situated in the Pădurea Craiului Mountains on the left bank of Crișul Repede River in the vicinity of Șuncuiuș v ...
,
Humpleu-Poienița Cave, and
Hodobana Cave are longer. Most speleological sources estimate its length at ,
although a length of has also been reported. Some Romanian news sources report a more conservative .
It is considered a
natural monument of Romania.
The cave was first historically documented in 1880 by V. Dumitrescu.
The first serious attempt at scientific exploration was made in 1956 by Sever Popescu of
Turnu Severin
Drobeta-Turnu Severin (), colloquially Severin, is a city in Mehedinți County, Oltenia, Romania, on the northern bank of the Danube, close to the Iron Gates. "Drobeta" is the name of the ancient Dacian and Roman towns at the site, and the modern ...
. Finally, specialists from the Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology at the
Romanian Academy began true systematic exploration in 1962.
Description
Topolnița Cave is located at from
Drobeta-Turnu Severin
Drobeta-Turnu Severin (), colloquially Severin, is a city in Mehedinți County, Oltenia, Romania, on the northern bank of the Danube, close to the Iron Gates. "Drobeta" is the name of the ancient Dacian and Roman towns at the site, and the modern ...
, between the villages of
Marga and
Cireșu.
It has at least four entrances.
The cave's primary entrance is in the central part of the
Mehedinți Plateau, where the
Topolnița River plunges down into the earth.
The river later emerges farther downstream at the foot of a hill.
Topolnița Cave has a huge number of passages and galleries arranged over five floors, many of which have attracted fanciful names as a result of the
speleothems that have formed in them.
One of the largest galleries, at long, is named the Racoviță Gallery in honor of
Emil Racoviță, a noted Romanian explorer.
Approximately from the entrance is the Bat's Gallery, containing a
bat colony and a large
guano
Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...
heap.
Other features within the cave include lakes, waterfalls, rapids, and massive forests of
stalactite
A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via
''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble an ...
s and
stalagmite
A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling")
is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...
s.
remains have also been found within the cave.
Cave access
Best described as "
labyrinthine", Topolnița Cave is a difficult cave to explore even for experienced cavers. Access for tourists is permitted only once per year, on a feast day in August, where guides lead tours into the cave to view the Racoviță Gallery.
Otherwise, the cave is gated and access is only available by permission of the
Romanian Academy.
In the 1980s, there was some government interest in adding tourist-access features such as stairs, railings, and electric lights, but funding fell through before the
Romanian Revolution and nothing was completed.
Fauna
The cave's temperature hovers between , making it a relatively warm cave.
As a result, it is a suitable habitat for some fauna, including the largest colony of
greater horseshoe bats in Europe.
A 2015 survey conducted as part of an effort to protect Romania's bats found 7,482 individual horseshoe bats living in the cave.
The colony in the Bat's Gallery is mainly composed of
insectivorous
A robber fly eating a hoverfly
An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects.
The first vertebrate insectivores were ...
Mediterranean horseshoe bats,
Daubenton's bats, and
long-fingered bats.
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was dev ...
has shown that the bat guano from that colony has been continuously deposited since 1694.
In 2009, a pair of
bearded vultures was spotted at the cave by hunters. The sighting was treated with some excitement, as the bearded vulture is no longer extant in Romania.
Plenty of
invertebrate species live in or around Topolnița Cave. Specimens of
Clausiliidae, or door snails, such as ''
Macedonica marginata
''Macedonica'' is a genus of gastropods belonging to the family Clausiliidae.
The species of this genus are found in the Balkans.
Species:
*'' Macedonica brabeneci''
*'' Macedonica dobrostanica''
*'' Macedonica frauenfeldi''
*'' Macedonica g ...
'', have been found in the cave. A number of species of
Opiliones, colloquially known as harvestmen, have been recorded.
[Ilie, Victoria. "A check-list of the harvestmen (Opilionida) from the Romanian caves." ''Archives of Biological Sciences'' 54.1–2 (2002): 49–55. Vi]
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References
{{Authority control
Caves of Romania
Geography of Mehedinți County
Wild caves
Bat roosts