Ravanicka Pecina

Ravanicka Cave

Useful Information

Location:	Near Senje. Motorway 1 (E75) exit Cuprija, road to Senje, at the other side of the village. Signposted Manastir Ravanicka.
Open:	no restrictions. [2008]
Fee:	free. [2008]
Classification:	Karst cave
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:	L=1,049 m.
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1987	plans to open the cave as a show cave.
2007	four Belgrade cave divers drown in the cave.

Description

Раваничка пећина or Ravanicka Pecina (Ravanica Cave) is a small cave not far from Manastir Ravanica (Ravanica monastery) from the 14th century. At the moment it is possible to visit the entrance section with its nice portal and flat floor. According to a report in The British Caver in 1987 the cave was planned to be opened as a show cave. Actually this never happened, because of the war which broke out two years later.

The cave is explored by local cavers of Speleological Association "As". At the weekend of 29-APR-2007 nine cavers explored various parts of the cave. The cave has a sequence of 10 sumps which must be dived, the try to dive the last and still unexplored 1,500 m deep in the cave lead to a tragic dead of four cave divers. Three students, Boško Madžarevic, Fulip Avramovic and Bojan Borokic, aged 23 to 25, and their lecturer of the Belgrade geological and mining faculty, Sasa Colic, 35, tried to dive through water-filled pockets of the Ravanicka cave. There has been some confusion of the cause of the accident in the media, some told of carbon-monoxide poisoning, others of drowning, even poisoning with methane was once mentioned.

All those speculations are far from speleological reality, the rescuing team was from the lignite mine Rembas, and coal produces methane, but it is extremely rare in caves, so they obviously sticked to what they were used to. The carbon monoxide explanation is even weirder, as it actually does not occur in nature. It is a result of incomplete oxidation and is produced by old cars and heating systems burning fossil energy. Carbon dioxide on the other side is common in many caves, and it forms "lakes", as it is heavier than air. People suffocate in those lakes, as the carbon dioxide lake has not enough oxygen, it is replaced by carbon dioxide. As it is unlikely that the diving gear of four divers failed at the same time, it was probably such a carbon dioxide lake near the sump. Another possibility is a technical defect which made the diving equipment of all four unusable. Probably they filled their bottles with the same machine, and if this machine had a defect, they probably all four died because their air was not in order. However, cave diving is very dangerous, so if you visit the cave use your brain and stay out of the water.

The treasure of Лазар Хребељановић (Lazar of Serbia, *1329-✝1389) was stored at the nearby Ravanica monastery. In the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 the invading Ottomans fought against Prince Lazar and others. Both Lazar and his opponent Murat I lost their lives, but the Serbs lost the battle, and the land was occupied. The Christian monasteries all over Serbia were destroyed by the Muslim occupiers. To protect the most important possession of the monastery, the monks from Ravanica monastery hid the treasure in the Ravanica cave. The treasure is still there, as the monks are all gone and nobody knows where they hid it.