Atta Cave

Quarry workers blasting limestone at Attendorn in July 1907 broke into a cave system and it opened to visitors within months. The show route runs about five hundred and seventy metres past chambers of stalactites, straws and curtains, with the formations unusually varied in colour from iron and other minerals in the rock. Beyond the tourist route, further passages are used for speleotherapy: patients with asthma and other respiratory conditions spend time in the cave air, which is close to free of dust and pollen and holds a constant humidity, a treatment offered under German health provisions. The temperature stays around nine degrees.

History

The cave began to form in the Devonian, about 400 million years ago, when the area lay in a bay of the sea, as water seeping through the limestone dissolved caverns, and an earthquake several thousand years ago broke some of its formations. Workers quarrying limestone for the Bigge valley works broke into it on 19 July 1907, and the owners opened it to visitors that same year; further passages were found in 1985 by Elmar Hammerschmidt, and the whole system runs to about 6,000 metres, not fully surveyed. It is the most visited show cave in Germany, with around 350,000 visitors a year, and part of it is used to store cheese (Wikipedia, Atta Cave).

What you'll find

• The coloured formations - dripstone tinted by iron and other minerals.
• The 1907 discovery - a cave opened by quarry blasting and shown within months.
• The therapy passages - sections used for treating respiratory conditions.
• The show route - about 570 metres of walkway through the chambers.

When to go

Year-round; the cave holds about nine degrees so a jacket is needed in summer. Tours run at set times, more often in season. Booking helps on summer weekends.

What to expect

Entry is on a fixed guided tour with steps throughout. The therapy sections are not part of the tourist route. It is cool and damp.

Nearby

The Biggesee reservoir is close; Winterberg lies east.

Key facts