Vilenica Cave
Natural environment
Vilenica Cave is more than 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) in length, with a depth of 180 m (590 ft), but tourists are only allowed into the first 450 m (1,480 ft) 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.
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 for literature by the Slovene Writers' Association. The award is bestowed in the cave's Plesna Hall (Plesna dvorana) on an author from Central Europe for his or her achievements in literary and essay writing.
References
- ^ Jama VILENICA cave(s) Wikimapia
- ^ Vilenica.com. The Vilenica Cave homepage published by the Sežana Caving Society, in Slovenian, English, Italian and German.