Location: |
5 km. from the village Prámanta towards Árta. From Árta follow |
Open: |
All year Mon-Sat 10-16, Sun 10-17. [2021] |
Fee: |
Adults EUR 4, Children EUR 2. [2021] |
Classification: | Karst Cave. river cave. |
Light: | Incandescent Coloured Light |
Dimension: | L=350 m, T=19 °C (air), T=10 °C (river), A=900 m asl |
Guided tours: | |
Photography: | |
Accessibility: | no |
Bibliography: | |
Address: |
Anemotrypa Stalactite Cave, Επαρχιακή Οδός Ιωαννίνων-Πραμάντων 13, Pramanta 440 01, Tel: +30-694-923-1710.
Municipality of Pramanta, Pramanta, Tel: +30-26590-62300, Fax: +30-26590-62301. E-mail: |
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. |
SEP-1960 | discovered by A. Lambris and T. Karakostas. |
2002 | closed for renovation. |
14-JUL-2003 | reopened to the public. |
In September 1960 A. Lambris and T. Karakostas sat resting in the shade of a tree. They felt a cold air at their backs, and discovered a crack leading to a magnificent cave. They called it Anemotrypa (Cave of the Wind) because of the cold wind, which lead to its discovery.
The cave has three levels. The upper level, the oldest one, has collapsed and there are only a few remaining parts. The middle level is the part of the cave shown to the visitors. The lowest level is the bed of an underground river. This river can be seen from the end of the tourist trail, as the water tumbles down a two metre high waterfall, ten meters below the path. Another connection to this level is at the other end of the cave, where the water reappears after passing the inaccessible channel of the third level. It reappears the next time in a spring, 25 m below the cave entrance. The spring is used by the nearby villages as a water supply.
The tourist section is more or less a long passage, the tour goes in and back, but it uses separate paths most of the time. Beneath beautiful coloured dripstones are three ponds called the Grey, the Red and the White Pond, guess why.
Insects (Lepidoptera) and other cave dwelling fauna have been found in the cave.
Unfortunately the cave is very secluded at the end of a steep mountain valley. It is more than 60 km on winding roads from Ioannina, and even more from Árta, although this road seems to be less winding. However, you should be aware that you will need at least two hours by car, one way, either way. But the drive is definitely very impressive, the gorges are marvellous.
The cave was reopened in 2003 after a major renovation in 2002, it has been closed completely for more than a year. There is now a new building for the ticket office, new stairs down to the cave and a new cave entrance. Also the light system was redone, unfortunately with coloured lamps. Before the renovation the cave was famous for being closed now and then, and a call at the tourist bureau at Ioannina was much recommended by serious guidebooks. Probably this will change with the new situation, but a previous call at the tourist bureau or the cave might still be a good idea.
Lately the websites which have listed the cave all repeat the same nonsensical stuff. This cave is one of the few cave in the world with water or the only cave in Greece with water. Both versions are absolute nonsense, river caves are abundant, they are just harder to develop as a show cave. There are two great river show caves in Greece, Diros cave and Maara River cave. Then it is a "dragonfly" cave, because its a crack. We have no idea if this makes any sense in Greek and is just an translation error, but its definitely nonsense in English, French and German. And then there is a lake which is blue due to quartz crystals at the bottom. We tried to check if this stuff originates from their own website, but unfortunately the cave abandoned its website [2020], and replaced it by a facebook page, which is unfortunately rather common.