Peștera Bolii

Bolii Cave


Useful Information

Location: Municipiul Petroșani.
From Petrosani follow road 66 (E79) towards Hațeg. After 4.5 km turn right, after 350 m cross railroad tracks, 400 m to the cave entrance. Signposted.
(45.453452, 23.318430)
Open: Summer daily 10-19.
Winter Sat, Sun, 9:30-16.
[2020]
Fee: Adults RON 10, Children (0-14) RON 2.5, Students RON 5, Seniors RON 5.
[2020]
Classification: SpeleologyKarst cave
Light: LightIncandescent Electric Light System
Dimension: L=455 m, VR=3 m, A=720 m asl.
Guided tours: self guide, D=30 min.
Photography: allowed
Accessibility:  
Bibliography:  
Address: Peștera Bolii, Asociatia Petro Aqua, Aleea Florilor bl.1, sc.1, ap.4, Petrosani, judetul Hunedoara, Tel: +40-254-543-794, Fax: +40-254-541-533. E-mail:
President: Suhanek Imre, Mobile: +40-722-559-980.
Contact: Daniela Onofre, Mobile: +40-726-252-080.
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

1838 first written mention by M J Ackner.
1933 description in Monografia istorico geografică a localităţii Petroşani by Sebastian Stanca.
1960s cave first developed with bridges and opened to the public.
01-MAY-2007 first concerts held in the cave.
2011 ZDF German Television films dragon scenes for
2013 cave developed with bridges and electric light.
2014 cave reopened to the public.

Description

Peștera Bolii (Bolii Cave) is located at the rim of the Parcul Natural Grădiștea Muncelului-Cioclovina (Grădiștea Muncelului-Cioclovina Natural Park). The park is karstified and has numerous caves, namely Tecuri Cave, Stâna Valley cave, Cheia Cave, Șura Mare Cave, and Bolii Cave. Bolii Cvae was most likely named after the Bolia family which owns the land and forest in the area since the 15th century.

Bolii Cave is a river cave, which is entered through the huge portal of the resurgence of Galbina creek. The portal is 20 m wide and 10 m high, the passage behind only slightly smaller. The cave is a show cave for many years, but has been one of the Romanian type without electric light and no trails, requiring wading through the creek several times. But it has been refurbished a few years ago and has now electric light. But still, some distance in the cave the cobblestone trail ends and a compressed dirt trail continues. Bridges across the river were constructed of wood and look rather fragile. Some can be easily removed when a flood lingers. Sometimes the visitors walk actually on the riverbank, the sediments only pressed by the visitors which walked this way since the last flood. The cave is well kept by volunteers from the community and gets very little help from the county.

One thing which is quite exceptional, is that the cave is a through cave. After some time you reach the other end, where Jupâneasa creek flows into the huge passage. Here the trail crosses the brook to the other side, leads up the valley slope and returns to the entrance on the surface.

And the second is, that the passage is high enough that it is possible to ride through the cave. This fact is presented with so much fervor that it must have been common in the past to visit the cave on horseback. The German television used the cave lately as location for the documentary Die Nibelungensage (The Legend of the Nibelungen).

The cave was obviously visited by prehistoric man. It is spacious and easy to cross. Sometimes the hunter gatherers even stayed for some time at the cave. Beads and earthenware vessels, stone and bone tools from different epochs since the Paleolithic were discovered. But the cave with its river must cave destroyed most of the remains during uncountable floods. Later the cave was probably used during Roman times, probably to store goods. Since the Middle Ages the cave was used as a hideout by the locals, where they went in times of war. The usage as concert hall is much younger, since after World War I. IT was developed with bridges in the 1960s, but they were destroyed by the floods in the next years. As a result the cave was forgotten until it was revived by the speleologists of Asociatia Petro Aqua.

Legend Of Jupâneasa

Long before the conquest of Dacia by the Romans, these wild and hard-to-conquer lands were occupied by small communities of free Dacians who vigorously defended their territory, the customs and laws of the High Priest Zamolxis, the supreme deity of all Geto-Dacians. The Geto-Dacians are known as the only people who from the beginning listened, prayed and believed in one supreme deity - the High Priest Zamolxis. The high priest decided that all priests after death should turn into white wolves. The most faithful, the High Priest, should turn into the Great White Wolf, with the power request obedience from others. The great White Wolf watches over the freedom of the Dacians and the lands, waiting for the moment when Zamolxis asks him to announce the approach of the enemy. Through the howling of the white wolves, the pack of white wolves and the lords of the country defeat the enemies in battle and drive them away.

Once upon a time, the mistress of the lands and forests around the Bolii Cave, a dowry from her wealthy parents, was an unassuming young lady named Jupâneasa. Proud, domineering, hot-tempered, a little evil and arrogant, she wanted her lover, whom the White Wolves called into battle, to return quickly from the war in distant lands.

With black eyes, long, silky hair, red cheeks, the beautiful Jupâneasa descended into the cave to the Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a mysterious apparition in the cave rock. Here she prayed hotly and perhaps too insistently, to bring home her boyfriend. The Virgin Mary fulfilled her selfish wish and transformed her into a stream with crystal-clear waves, which has been called Jupâneasa ever since, flowing down the valley stormy and eternally calling her beautiful lover.