Closed Underground Tourist Sites

photography — The show cave is closed. Generated by AI. Public Domain.

Germany has had tourist caves since the late 19th century, and tourist mines since the early 20th century. Over time, some of these have been closed down, whether because visitors stopped coming, because they were too small, because there was no longer an operator, or because the technical costs would have been too high. Some caves were also closed for environmental reasons, for example to protect bats. However, it was usually political events, such as wars, that led to their closure, and afterwards no one could be found to run them.

However, if one looks at the different types, it becomes clear that many former show mines have been closed. This is partly due to the high safety standards in Germany, which have also been tightened on several occasions. Mines are certainly dangerous; a cave that is already millions of years old does not simply collapse, whereas a tunnel which withstands the pressure of the mountain solely through its support structure will collapse if that structure (often made of wood) has rotted away. In the case of show caves, it is more often the relatively minimally developed, semi-wild ones that are simply abandoned at some point. However, these only appear on this list if they are actually closed, meaning gated. In many cases, though, you can still visit them safely on your own with a bit of common sense.