1. 1. The Cave is open during the week except for Mondays and Thursdays*: from 09:00 - 16:40.
* Thursday open for May to August
2. ENTRANCE TO THE CAVE IS GRANTED ONLY AFTER MAKING A RESERVATION!!!
Please call us earlier to book the tickets, as the number of visits is limited due to the microclimate protection.
3. Time of sighting - about 45 minutes.
4. Book the ticket: +48 74 814 12 50
Photography and filming regulations for Bear Cave in Kletno visitors.
*Descriptions and information on the page jaskinia.pl are purely informative - not in any way constitute an offer.
Normal ticket - 55 PLN
Half-price ticket - 40 PLN
photography: - 15 PLN
filming: - 15 PLN
Children under 3 years free of charge.
Half-priced ticket for children, teenagers and students up to 26 years old and disabled people with carer.
Disabled people on wheelchairs with permission are allowed to drive up to car park close to Cave’s entrance. Then it should be declared in the booking office that the disabled person want to visit the Bear Cave. Disabled people on wheelchairs buy half-priced ticket. Stuff will help the disabled person to get into the Bear Cave.
The route for disabled people starts in the exit gate – this way and then through a special link in the cave disabled person is lead to a tourist group and meet them in place called Camp (Biwak). A visit in the Cave lasts about 40 minutes. You should have some warm clothes with you. If your wheelchair is wider than 78 cm we can lend you a wheelchair for the visit time.
Cascades
Bear Cave in Kletno is situated within the massif of Śnieżnik Kłodzki, on the right slope of the Valley of Kleśnica stream, in a block of marbles within the mountain Stroma (1,166.80 meters below sea level).
The corridors of the cave cave are situated horizontally, at three levels joined by chimneys. The lowest and mid parts are the best developed ones.
The total length of the corridors of the Bear Cave is over 4.5 km. The difference between the highest and the lowest point is 118 m. This is the biggest cave of the Poland.
The lowest parts have been presented to the public in a film about the Bear Cave made in 2003. Till that time we could only see the photos from the lowest parts of the Cave taken by the speleologic expeditions. In the film sector you will find the description of the expedition to the lowest parts of the Cave. The lowest parts
The mid parts,which are partly opened for tourists, can be admired while taking the tourist route. the tourist route.
The upper parts have been not entirely explored yet. They are located under the Palace Halls. Water coming from this part created impressive calcite dripstones (cascades in the Cascade Side; “stone milk” over the entrance to the Water Corridor).
Plan of the Bear Cave
Constant temperature of 6°C, small annual amplitude, air humidity almost 100%, small exchange of air - enables the creation of magnificent dripstones, which is the most popular feature of the Bear Cave. Dripstones are formed from water coming from the surface of Stroma mountain. This water contains a lot of minerals CaCO3 (Ca+2 + Mg+2) and it has an alkaline reaction of pH = 8. In such water the level of carbonates is exceeded and the excess is precipitated in the form of crystal calcite. Such features are gained in the surface coat of marbles between the surface of the slope and the Cave’s corridor. The additional factor is the vaporization process in the Cave.
Among the dripstones, which can be found in he Cave, we can distinguish the following:
We can meet here the bats: different species of myotis (Myotis myotis, Myotis daubentoni), barbastelle bat (Barbastella barbastellus), brown long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus). There have also been found the traces of the marten and the shrew.
The biotope of the cave is not very rich, but this is the result of cutting off the entrance to the surface. Species could only get there through the gaps in a rock.
The conditions here are not very fortunate as well for the development of the species, mainly due to the lack of light. Such deficiency eliminates any
plants’ growing in the Cave.
We can also find here some invertebrates mainly the Niphargus aquilex. It is the relic of the Tertiary sea fauna. It is of the length of 1.5 cm. Other invertebrates are: small white wingless insects, trichoptera, moths, caterpillars, spiders.
Palace Hall - Pagoda
Therefore this area belongs to the most interesting ones as for the research within the development of our planet. The process of creating the Bear Cave is strictly connected with carbonate rocks, which occurred here as blocks torn to pieces or parts swimming in the non-karst crystal rock mass.
This was a result of depositing debris of animals and plants living in the seas which occurred on this area (mainly the shells of foraminifera, mussels, cyrtina or the debris of corals and algae). Some of the shells or debris can be found today as the fossil in the Sudetes.
At that time the chalk deposits from the rising Śnieżnik slid down the bottom of the then sea gathering in the numerous hollows and craters. Because of the high pressure and temperature resulting from the pressure of the rocks, the calcareous deposits became crystal limestones i.e. marbles.
These rocks hide many of the surface karst formation (which were created as a result of the destroying influence of the water), mainly deep craters and cave on different levels. The history of these forms goes back to the tropical climate, developing at the close of the Cretaceous and the Paleogene (some 50 million years ago. This period is believed to be the beginning of the Bear Cave. An intensive development of karst forms lasted till the end of the Tertiary and was stopped by the ice age, 1.8 million years ago. Na ok. 50 mln lat temu datuje się początek powstawania Jaskini Niedźwiedziej. Intensywny rozwój form krasowych trwał aż do końca trzeciorzędu i został zahamowany dopiero przez zlodowacenia plejstoceńskie (ok. 1,8 mln lat temu).
During the ice age some deposits were created in the Cave composed of the debris of the animals. Today owing to these deposits we know a lot about both the animals and the changes of climate back then. Most of debris belongs to the the cave bear - (Ursus spelaeus), which gave the name to the Cave. Also the bones of cave lions, hyenas, wolves, martens, bats (many species), boars, beavers, foxes and many rodents have been found in the Cave. These are the bones of animals which sheltered in the cave or were killed by others animals, or were brought by water.
On 3rd December 1967, after the excavation had been finished in the ceiling of this hall the Palace Halls, the Corridor of the Primitive Human with the adhering corridors were discovered (this corridor has been named the Corridor of the Primitive Human due to the conditions there which allowed for a human to seek shelter there). The Cave was then already 350 meters long.
Between 1968-69 further explorations were conducted. So called “Old Wrocław Parts” was discovered then. It was located behind the Block Hall. Another discovery was the parts with the Water Corridor strongly damaged by tectonic movements. In December 1971 the length of the Cave was more than 800 meters.
On 26-29 January 1972 six members of the exploration team discovered a great system of corridors and halls called the New Lowest of the Cave of a total length of over 1 km. The team members were: J. Bieroński, Z. Dumański, K. Łukaszewicz, J. Panek, M. Paulina i J. Sądej. The works that followed concentrated on the exploration of the Maurycy’s Chimney in the Champagne Hall and on the digging in the Muddy Corridors located right behind the great crack in the lowest parts of the Cave. As a result of these works the length of the Cave was over 2.5 km.
At the beginning of the 70s the Scientific Care Committee for the Bear Cave was found under the National Council of Environment Protection in Warsaw. The Committee becomes an initiator of the exploration works in the Cave and supervises the protection of the Cave. In 1977 the Bear Cave together with the surroundings was recognised as a legally protected nature reserve.
On 11th June 1983, after 8 years of preparation works (mine and construction works in the Cave, electricity supply, entrance hall construction, modernisation of the access roads and the parking space) the Bear Cave was officially opened for tourists.
In cooperation with the Department of Tourism Services Bear Cave and its then director Marek Suszyński, the first web page presentation on the Bear Cave was edited by Mariusz Burszty. The site also provides information about the surrounding accommodations.
Exploration of the lowest part
The total length of the corridors of the Bear Cave is over 4.5 km. The difference between the highest and the lowest point is 118 m. This is the biggest cave of the Poland. Exploration continues...
Stalaktites
The route goes along the middle part of the Cave.
Calcite coatings
The lowest parts of the Bear Cave is a strictly protected reservation area. Still some excavation and exploration works on the development of the Cave are conducted there. The entrance to this part lies below the bridge over the Great Crack. We need to go down some 30 meters to the very bottom of the Great Crack, where there are the Old Wrocław Parts (towards the entrance hall). Opposite there are the New Lowest Parts, where the explorers found the dripstones which exceed the mid parts dripstones both as the beauty and the size are concerned.
Old Wrocław Parts – heading towards those we pass by the Bats Corridor on the left (some cal lit the Giraffe Corridor). We go farther along the Crack Hall and we move towards Kleśnica stream. Another stage of our trip is a long corridor, full of narrow passages, which leads to the Waterfall Hall (we are now under the bottom of Kleśnica). It is the part of the Cave which is still being developed, as the stream takes an underground shortcut here and when the water is high it brings different deposits with the flow.
New Lowest Parts – we are coming back to the bottom of the Great Crack and we go through the rocks towards south-east. We are squeezing through the numerous cracks (e.g. Shelf) up to the Hall with the Window. The muddy forms with the bones reaches even up to this part of the Cave. There is the system of corridors and cracks over this hall. You can see the bear bones spreading everywhere. They are usually extracted from the mud, lie on the bottom, stuck in the cracks or stuck to the rocky shelves.
We go towards the Wall of Cry and up. Our next obstacle is the Muddy Corridor and behind it there is the Champagne Hall. Its central point is the Great Cascade (over 15 meters high). The whole hall, with the Maurycy’s Chimney at the top of it, is of a total height of 50 meters.
Next part of our trip is the rocky place with some cracks along which we move to the hall called the Roundabout. There are a few corridors spreading as radii and a “calcite stream floating down”. In the stream floating at the bottom of the hall we can meet the Niphargus tatrensis (an invertebrate living in caves) and in the upper part of the hall – the bats. One the right there is a passage to the Diamond Hall. In front of the entrance we need to change the speleological uniforms for the white ones so that we do not spoil the snow-white dripstones with the mud from the other halls. The dripstones in this corridors are much bigger than in other parts of the Cave. We will find here beautiful dead basins with numberless calcite flowers, fairy cascades and curtains. From the Diamond Corridor there is another corridor leading out which Has no dripstones.
The exploration of the Lowest Parts
Spectacular discoveriesExploration of the lowest parts The total length of the corridors of the Bear Cave is over 4.5 km. The difference between the highest and the lowest point is 118 m. This is the biggest cave of the Poland. Exploration continues...
Stalaktites
Bear Cave - Location
*Descriptions and information on the page jaskinia.pl are purely informative
- not in any way constitute an offer.
Tourist service in Cave Bear: Stroński Partk Aktywności "Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia" Sp. z o.o.
Adress Cave Bear:
Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia w Kletnie
57-550 Stronie Śląskie, Kletno 18
POLAND
tel. +48 74 814 12 50
© 2003-2022 Mariusz Burszta. All rights reserved.