Mladec Caves

The Mladec caves are a system of chambers and passages in limestone north of Litovel, and their importance is archaeological rather than scenic. Excavations from the 1880s recovered human skulls and bones together with animal remains and worked bone and stone, and the human material has been dated to around thirty-one thousand years, which places it among the earliest securely dated remains of anatomically modern humans in Europe and makes Mladec a reference site in the debate about how and when modern humans spread into the continent. Much of the original material was lost in a fire at Mikulov castle in 1945; what survived is in museums. The visitor route is about four hundred metres through chambers with dripstone and a display on the finds. The caves are also a bat hibernation site, so opening is seasonal and parts are closed in winter.

What you actually see

• Early modern human finds - remains dated to around thirty-one thousand years.
• A reference site - central to the debate on when modern humans reached Europe.
• A four-hundred-metre route - chambers with dripstone and a display on the finds.
• A bat hibernation roost - which closes parts of the system in winter.

When to go

April to October. Two hours.

Honest expectations

Guided tours only, seasonal, with parts closed in winter for bats. The dripstone is modest compared with Javoricko - the reason to come is the archaeology. The original finds are in museums elsewhere.

Nearby

Javoricko caves are south; Litovel and its floodplain forests are close.