Bogovina Cave

The Bogovina cave is a karst/river cave in the village of Bogovina in eastern Serbia. In local alphabet the name of the cave is Боговинска пећина. The cave is (depending on source) 5020 or 5892 meters long, up until few years ago it was Serbia's longest cave. It is a show cave, that is you can't enter on your own but need to arrange the local tourist office to give you a tour. The show cave part is half a kilometer long, consisting first from an excavated tunnel and then the cave proper. The stalactite formations in the cave are wonderful, but at the end in the Hajduk hall they are especially spectacular.

Hajduks are mythical Serbian freedom fighters, heroes. See here for more information on them.

This year (2024) the cave had been suffering from a two-year drought, and only recently the stream running through the cave has filled up. Filled up so much in fact that rushed like the rapids in some places, and in other places covered the built up walkways. Rubber boots would have allowed us to continue to the end of the cave, but I had my leaky hiking boots with me this time, so I took off my shoes and waded through the water to get to the end of the cave tour. It was refreshing (5 degrees) but much worth it, since the absolutely greatest sights in the cave were at the end :-)

Coordinates: N 43.897102 E 21.925390. The semi-official web site is here. There's a good Telegraf.rs article here, and the (Serbian) Wikipedia article is here. The admission fees are symbolic, as the Telegraf article puts it: 300 dinars or about 3 euros. But, while the Google Maps entry for instance claims that the cave is open, in practice there isn't anyone there and the cave is locked and dark. At least that was our experience in the winter time, maybe different during the summer. Ask your hotel call them and arrange a tour, or call directly on the local number 06 90215191.

The town of Bogovina is a nice but declining coal-mining town, as the mine is about to close or perhaps already is. You drive through the town to get to smaller roads and eventually enter the cave facility. There's good signage along the way, but the roads can be tricky if there's snow. The cave area has an old park ranger house (abandoned), a bit space for parking, a ticket sales hut, and lounging area with some cover for the hot summer months.

Proper caving tours beyond the tourist section may also be available according to many sources (e.g., the Wikipedia article), but I didn't have time for that this time.

Hajduk hall:

Cave forms:

Broken cave forms:

River flows in the cave:

Halls:

Bats and other nature in the cave:

Entrance:

Original entrance (to the left and up from the tourist entrance above):

Village:

Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.