State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic
Slovak Caves Administration
It is located on the Duča Plateau in the Slovak Paradise National Park. It reaches the length of 22,027 m together with interconnected Psie diery Cave. It is formed in the Mesozoic Middle Triassic Steinalm and Wetterstein limestones of the Stratená Nappe.
The Stratenská Cave stands out mainly by mighty underground spaces, when the Rozprávkový Dome with volume over 79,017 m3 is the largest cave space in Slovakia. The calcite speleothems are in forms of straw and bigger stalactites and curtains, but mainly as mound, cone, pagoda and stick stalagmites. Cascade and other lake formations, rare cave pearls in the shape of hemisphere (hemispheroids), aragonite crystalline protrusions, eccentric dripstones and gypsum are also present. The largest lake is Stalagmitové Lake with an area of 320 m2.
Fourteen bat species have been recorded by now. Dominating are the Greater Mouse-Eared Bat (Myotis myotis) and the Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros). The troglobitic springtails Arrhopalites aggtelekiensis, Deuteraphorura kratochvili and Protaphorura janosik are representatives of the invertebrates. A new species of mite Foveacheles troglodyta, which is endemic species of the Slovak Paradise was discovered here. Blind cave crustacean Niphargus tatrensis lives in underground waters.
The cave is also an important palaeontological locality. The richest finding place of cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) bones in Slovakia is in the Psie diery Cave. The bones findings are 15,490 to 17,530 years old according to geochronological dating.
The Stratenská Cave was discovered by V. Košel and J. Volek in 1972. The Psie diery Cave was connected in 1994. The long-time speleological survey and research is done by cavers from Spišská Nová Ves.
Dear visitors, we would like to inform you that due to the technical conditions of payment terminals, there may be situations when card payment will not be possible. For this reason, we recommend that you have an adequate amount of cash available if you want to be sure that you will be able to visit the cave. Thank you for understanding.
Dear visitors,
after a longer period we reopen the long tour in the Demänovska Cave of Liberty from the 1st of July 2024. The tour is open once a day at 13:15 from June to August (3 months) and at 13:00 during the rest of the opening days. Number of visitors is limited, the tour is demanding, with many steps and it takes more than one and a half hours. Cave temperature is around 7°C whole year round. We are looking forward to your visit.
