The Unicorn Cave (german: Einhornhöhle) is the largest

show cave A show cave—also called tourist cave, public cave, and, in the United States, commercial cave—is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits. Definition A show cave is a cave that has been made accessible to ...

in the West Harz, about kilometres northwest of

Scharzfeld Scharzfeld is a village in the borough of Herzberg am Harz in the district of Göttingen in South Lower Saxony, Germany. Scharzfeld lies at a height of about 220 m above sea level and has 1,765 inhabitants (as at 1 October 2006). The ...

in the borough of Herzberg am Harz in central

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

.''Einhornshöhle''
at www.einhornhoehle.de - click on the "Die Höhle" tab. Accessed on 10 May 2011. It is a

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

cave developed in

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

strata that is part of the

Zechstein The Zechstein (German either from ''mine stone'' or ''tough stone'') is a unit of sedimentary rock layers of Middle to Late Permian (Guadalupian to Lopingian) age located in the European Permian Basin which stretches from the east coast of Englan ...

History

The cave was first mentioned in the records in 1541. In 1686

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...

visited the cave and wrote a report about it mentioning the local trade with unicorn artefacts. In those days fossilized bones supposed to be from unicorns were ground and used for making medicine. In the 17th century

Otto von Guericke Otto von Guericke ( , , ; spelled Gericke until 1666; November 20, 1602 – May 11, 1686 ; November 30, 1602 – May 21, 1686 ) was a German scientist, inventor, and politician. His pioneering scientific work, the development of experimental me ...

, the mayor of

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

, wrote a newspaper article about the finding of some ancient animal bones in the Zeunickenberg, a Harz mountain near

Quedlinburg Quedlinburg () is a town situated just north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. As an influential and prosperous trading centre during the early Middle Ages, Quedlinburg became a center of in ...

, in which he held the opinion that the bones were the remains of a unicorn. Based on Guerickes writings Leibniz drew a fictional reconstruction of the

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

's skeleton using the bones that had been found in the cave and published the drawing in his book ''Protagaea''. In 1872

Rudolf Virchow Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...

carried out an excavation there and determined that the unknown bones actually stem from extinct animals like mammoths and cave bears. Over 70 species of animal have been identified from the many bones that have been found, including 60 species of mammal; amongst them the cave lion and the

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

. In 1905 the Unicorn Cave was made accessible to visitors by the construction of an entrance gallery. Since then 270 metres of the total length of 610 metres have been opened up as a show cave. The Unicorn Cave is one of the three information centres of the Harz - Brunswick Land - Eastphalia National Geopark. The Unicorn Cave has a checkpoint (no. 101) which is part of the

Harzer Wandernadel The Harzer Wandernadel is a system of hiking awards in the Harz mountains in central Germany. The hiker (or mountain biker) can earn awards at different levels of challenge by walking to the various checkpoints in the network and stamping his or ...

network of hiking trails. In 2021 a Giant engraved deer bone was found here, the oldest piece of European art ever discovered, and attributed to Neanderthals.

Legend

According to a

legend A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...

the discovery of the cave was linked to the nearby rock church at

. In the cave-like rock church it is said that in heathen times there lived an old and wise woman who helped people in search of for advice. One day she was driven away by a monk in a black habit in the company of Frankish warriors. A

was supposed to have protected her from her pursuers. The woman joined the witches' community on the Witches' Dance Floor on the

Brocken The Brocken, also sometimes referred to as the Blocksberg, is the highest peak in the Harz mountain range and also the highest peak in Northern Germany; it is near Schierke in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt between the rivers Weser and Elbe. ...

mountain. Thereafter the black monk disappeared into a hole in the ground which led to the discovery of the Unicorn Cave. In fact the cave had been known about since the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

and had never been forgotten.

References

Sources

* Ernst Andreas Friedrich: ''Naturdenkmale Niedersachsens''. Hannover, 1980.

External links

Unicorn Cave: English home page

at www.showcaves.com.
Unicorn Cave: German home page

Ralf Nielbock: The Unicorn Cave near Scharzfeld/Harz (pdf)
(191 kB)

{{Authority control Show caves in Germany Caves of the Harz Landforms of Lower Saxony Tourist attractions in Lower Saxony Unicorns Caves of Germany

History

Legend

See also

References

Sources

External links