The long and rich history of research of the underground Herzegovinian karst within the Vjetrenica Cave inspired the employees of the Public Company Vjetrenica – Popovo polje to open a museum where visitors could see unique items.
“The project of equipping the Biospeleological museum Vjetrenica began in 2014. In the realization of this idea, we got help from the office of UNESCO in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the reconstruction of the building, and the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism supports us in furnishing, removing the exhibits and their conservation, and this part is the first phase of the exhibition of this museum”, said Ana Soldo, the director of Public Company Vjetrenica.
The famous cave Vjeternica is the first in the world for biodiversity. It is located in the area of the Southern-Dinaric karst system, with the entrance on the very edge of the Popovo field.
Last month, the speleologists from our country and from Croatia pulled a 100-year-old boat from inside the cave.
“In the future museum, the boat will be one of the most interesting exhibits, which are evidence of research in the past. In the late 19th and early 20th century, with the arrival of the first explorers and speleologists in Vjetrenica, much of the main channel of the cave for a distance of 2.800 meters was explored. Today, 7.000 meters of the channel have been explored and mapped”, Soldo explained.
The main issue for researchers since the very beginning of the research was to cross the Great Lake which is situated in the middle of the main channel, or more precisely 1.300 meters from the entrance to the cave.
The Great Lake is the longest underground lake in Europe, and due to the large amount of water that accumulates in the winter it reaches a length of up to 750 meters. The Czech researcher Karel Absolon, who visited Vjetrenica more than 20 times in his life, crossed the Great Lake with his boat. At least five people were needed to carry the boat because it was big and heavy, the guide said.
(Source: klix.ba)
