Allander Tropfsteinhöhle

Useful Information

Location:	Near Alland. E60 exit Alland, right into town, in the center left towards Altenmark, at the city limits. Parking lot at the road Alland-Altenmarkt. 10 min walk to the cave. (48.0530622, 16.0776554)
Open:	Easter to JUN Sat, Sun, Hol 9-17. JUL to AUG Mon-Fri 13-17, Sat, Sun, Hol 9-17. SEP to OCT Sat, Sun, Hol 9-17. Last guided tour 16. [2025]
Fee:	Adults EUR 8, Children (4-15) EUR 5. [2025]
Classification:	Karst Cave Moonmilk.
Light:	LED
Dimension:	L=177 m, VR=25 m, T=9 °C, A=410 m asl. Portal: W=3 m, H=3 m.
Guided tours:	D=25 min, L=70 m, VR=12 m, MinAge=4.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	D. Döppes, C. Frank (1997): Allander Tropfsteinhöhle, In: D. Döppes, G. Rabeder (eds). Pliozäne und pleistozäne Faunen Österreichs. - Mitt. Komm. Quartärf. Österr. Akad. Wiss. 10: 388-401, Verlag Österr. Akad. Wiss. Wien. D. Döppes, C. Frank (1997): Spätglaziale und mittelholozäne Faunenreste in der Allander Tropfsteinhöhle (Niederösterreich), Wiss. Mitt. Niederösterr. Landesmus. 10: 129-147, St. Pölten. Die Allander Tropfsteinhöhle In: Badener Zeitung, 27. Juni 1928, S. 1 f. online
Address:	Allander Tropfsteinhöhle, Buchberggasse, A-2534 Alland, Tel: +43-660-6735108. e.leonhardsberger@gmx.at Gemeindeamt Alland, Hauptstraße 176, A-2534 Alland, Tel: +43-2258-2245, Fax: +43-2258-2424. gemeindeamt@alland.gv.at
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

1928	opened for the public.
30-JUL-1949	declared a natural monument.
2025	new LED light system installed.

Description

The Allander Tropfsteinhöhle (Dripstone cave of Alland), named after the nearby village of Alland, is located on the slopes of the Großer Buchberg (478 m asl) in the Vienna Woods. The cave is rather small, but it is one of the largest caves in Lower Austria. The cave is 177 metres long in total, of which only 70 metres are accessible as a show cave. After an entrance portal, which is 3 metres wide and 3 metres high, there are corridors along fissures that are up to 12 metres high. This passage is called Hohe Kluft. The fact that the cave is quite close to the earth’s surface can be seen as plant roots penetrate up to 11 metres into the cave. This provides a food source for an extraordinary cave fauna. But people have also been visiting the cave since the Stone Age, with excavations yielding finds of antlers, bones, stone, clay, bronze and iron.

The stalactite cave in the name is well deserved, it has quite beautiful speleothems such as stalactites, stalagmites, bulbous calcite and moonmilk. The very first large room is called Nix-Dom, Nix is the Austrian word for Mondmilch. It is also a palaeontological site with remains of brown bears (Ursus arctos). A 10,000-year-old brown bear skeleton can be seen in a small exhibition in the cave. A room on the right-hand side of the corridor was used as a hiding place by thieves at the beginning of the 20th century. They cracked so-called "Zuckerlautomaten" (sugar vending machines) in the area and hid their loot here. When this became known, the room was given the name Diebsversteck (Thieves' Hideout).

The cave was scientifically researched by Dr Michael Müllner from the Lower Austrian Provincial Collections. This institution also supervised the development of the cave into a show cave, which was carried out by Cyclist Battalion I from Wöllersdorf and only took two weeks. In first development the staicases were made of wood, but they have since been replaced by galvanised iron. The first cave light was already electric, an "Anthygron-Rohrdrahtsystem" from Siemens-Schuckert-Werke of which they were very proud. More importantly, even back then, care was taken to ensure that the lighting was indirect so as not to dazzle visitors. Unfortunately, this didn't help much against the lamp flora.

The inside of the mountain is full of water and at night you can hear the rushing of this water. The cave has an underground connection to the Arnstein Cave in the Peilstein.

The locals call the cave the "Frauenloch" ("women's hole"), as it was home to both kind white women and evil black women. The white fairies always appeared with their hair down at night on the meadows on the mountainside to perform their dances. One day, such a woman came to a farmer in the field where he was ploughing and was just about to turn over the oxen. She said to him: "Farmer, fix my little cross board, I’ll give you a Fleck for pay!" The farmer replied: "Now, give it to me!" and fastened the little cross board. She walked back to the Buchberg. At lunchtime the farmer went home, and when he returned to the field after lunch, there was a patch of Fleck on the plough. The farmer began to eat, but no matter how much he ate, the Fleck did not get any smaller. He exclaimed, "Crucifix, aren't you going to get eaten!" and the Fleck disappeared immediately.

There is a lot to explain. Firstly, the underground connection is a typical legend, the Arnstein Cave is only 2.8 kilometres away, but it is not actually geologically possible. The story with the white woman uses some local dialect terms. A Krückerl is a cross board on a wooden handle that is used when baking with wood to pull the embers out of the oven. In wood-fired ovens, wood or twigs are burnt in the baking chamber first, and when this has almost burnt down the stones are hot, the ashes are pulled out, the combustion chamber is wiped out with a damp cloth and the bread is placed on the hot stone floor. When the bread is moulded and some dough remains, it is quickly baked in the hottest place at the end. This pastry is called Feuerflecken or short Fleck, is different from normal bread and was considered a delicacy. The legend actually has a connection to the cave: when the moist cave air flows out of the cave, and it is colder outside, the humidity condenses and forms mist. The wafts of mist were depicted as fairies in flowing dresses or as their laundry hung out to dry. These legends go back to older legends about Germanic gods. A more modern legend is the following:

At the end of the tour, in the High Cathedral, there is the so-called Schatzkammer (treasure chamber). You can't enter it because it’s guarded by a sabre-toothed tiger!

The cave is a 10-minute walk from the car park at the end of Buchberggasse. The "Fellnerweg", named in honour of a former mayor who was instrumental in opening the cave for the public, leads to the cave entrance. There is also a stone monument in honour of the brown bear found in the cave. The cave is rather small and a guided tour only lasts 25 minutes. As always, good shoes and a jacket are recommended.