Podbanište Cave

The Podbanište Cave is located in the Rimavská Sobota district and the territory of Slizké village. It is the longest and most surveyed cave of the Drienčansky karst with outstanding geomorphological, hydrogeological and zoological values.

The abyss type opening with dimensions of 1 x 3 m is on the bottom of 18 m deep funnel depression, which is at the end of the blind valley south westerly from the Slizké village. The upper edge of the karst depression is at elevation of 370 m (entrance at 352 m above the sea). The opening was known for a long time. It was used to storing meat because of long keeping a snow in there. The cavers from Rimavská Sobota gradually discovered underground spaces in length of several hundreds meters. They found the Nad Kadlubom Cave in 1991 and finally joined the two caves which thus reached the length of 1,570 m. The elevation span between the Podbanište Cave and the lowest place is 26 m.

The cave is accessible through two well entrances - Podbanište and Nad Kadlubom. Flowstone fills in the cave are represented by crusts and layers, stalactites as much as 1,5 m long, not big straw stalactites and eccentric side protrusions on transparent stalactites up to 10 cm long. There are also flowstone curtains and mounds often with microcascades formed by floor flowstone in several parts of the main riverbed. The colours are mostly white only sometimes turns to brownish or reddish.

The mechanical fills are represented by fine grained gravels filling up the most of river passages. They consist rounded andesite pebbles, fragments of sand or clay shales and sporadically limestone and flowstone pebbles.

Podbanište is a fluviokarst cave, formed by erosion and corrosion activities of running waters coming from several sources. This system is formed in the cliff facies of the Upper Triassic Wetterstein limestones. Air temperature is influenced by outside conditions down to the beginning of the riverbed. The rear parts of the cave have 8,0 to 9,5 °C, water stream has temperature of 7,0 to 9,0 °C, occasionally up to 9,5 °C.

The cave is interesting for the bats as well. From among 6 bat species the most abundant is the Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros). Guano accumulations show the mass occurrence of bats in the past. A cave mineral brushit was identified from these guano mounds.

A rare endemic form of cave beetle Duvalius bokori goemoeriensis,  occurring only in the Drienčansky karst of the Revúcka Upland, was found here. Blind crustaceans Synurella intermedia and Niphargus tatrensis, belonging to amphiphod group (Amphipoda) live in the underground stream. Terrestric crustaceans are represented by Mesoniscus graniger. A spider Meta menardi is a regular dweller of the entrance parts.