Vilenica Cave or Vilenica Cave at Lokev ( sl, Jama Vilenica pri Lokvi) is the oldest show cave in Europe. The first tourists to the cave were recorded in 1633. It is located next to the village of Lokev in the municipality of

Sežana Sežana (; it, Sesana) is a town in the Slovenian Littoral region of Slovenia, near the border with Italy. It is the seat of the Municipality of Sežana. Sežana is located on the Karst Plateau, from Trieste, Italy, and from Ljubljana, the ...

on the

Karst Plateau The Karst Plateau or the Karst region ( sl, Kras, it, Carso), also locally called Karst, is a karst plateau region extending across the border of southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy. It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills su ...

in southwestern

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

Natural environment

Vilenica Cave is more than in length, with a depth of , but tourists are only allowed into the first of the cave.

History

Until the mid-19th century it was known as the biggest, most beautiful, and most frequently visited cave of the Classical Karst. It attracted artists such as Ferdinand Runk and Peter Fendi, who was awarded a gold medal in 1821 for his oil painting of the cave. Later it was surpassed by

Postojna Cave Postojna Cave ( sl, Postojnska jama; german: Adelsberger Grotte; it, Grotte di Postumia) is a long karst cave system near Postojna, southwestern Slovenia. It is the second-longest cave system in the country (following the Migovec System) as wel ...

. Since 1986, the annual Vilenica International Literary Festival has taken place in the cave and in the towns and villages of the Karst and elsewhere. The event most commonly happens in the beginning of September. The central part of the festival is the conferral of the

Vilenica Prize Vilenica International Literary Festival ( sl, Mednarodni literarni festival Vilenica) is a festival dedicated to literature that was founded in 1986 in Slovenia. It takes place annually in several locations on the Karst Plateau in the Slovene Lit ...

for literature by the Slovene Writers' Association. The award is bestowed in the cave's Plesna Hall () on an author from

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...

for his or her achievements in literary and essay writing.Vilenica.com
The Vilenica Cave homepage published by the Sežana Caving Society, in Slovenian, English, Italian and German.

References

Show caves in Slovenia Arts centres in Slovenia Municipality of Sežana Caves of the Slovene Littoral {{Slovenia-geo-stub