Dobšinská Ice Cave & Chateau Betliar

Dobšinská Ice Cave and Chateau Betliar in Slovakia, one of the most popular tours!

Dobšinská Ice Cave UNESCO and Chateau Betliar, top sites to see in Gemer region. Not far from Tatra mountain.

History of the Chateau Betliar is connected to two important yeomen and noble families – the Bebeks and the Andrassys. The Bebeks built the core of the Chateau in the 15th century.

Later, at the beginning of the 18th century it became one of the many noble residences of Andrassy family and it had this function until 1945.

The Chateau Betliar was rebuilt several times during its existence. At the end of the 19th century there was a large Classicist reconstruction. It gained today’s appearance at the end of the 19th century during the time of Emanuel Andrassy.

Together with his son Geza they furnished it luxuriously and they collected many pieces of art and craft here.

Today these works form a valuable collection of art of the 19th century and Vienna Classicist furniture of the 18th century. Historical library contains more than 15000 volumes especially of foreign literature, theology, history, state science and geography.

A collection of guns, hunting trophies and exotic souvenirs from all around the world, especially those from Asia and Africa which are very valuable, can also be found here. Chateau Betliar has also pieces from the Middle Ages up to the 19th century here.

After the guided tour we will hop on the minibus and continue to Dobšinská Ice Cave located 35 km up north from the Chateau Betliar.

Dobšinská Ice Cave state-protected national monument is one of the scarcest and most remarkable natural phenomena in Slovakia. It was discovered by a mining engineer E. Ruffinyi and his fellows on July 15, 1870.

In 1871 it was already open to public. In 1887 it was the first cave in Europe with electric lighting.

The entrance into the Dobšinská Ice Cave is situated on the northern slope of the Duča Hill at the height of 969,5 m.

The length of the cave reaches 1232 m.

Going from the entrance aperture the rooms of the cave successively descend which together with the cave´s orientation to the north allows the cold air in winter to fall down and thus to cool off the rooms inside.

In summer, on the other hand, the warmer air (is lighter) cannot get into the cave, and therefore the average temperature inside stays below 0°C the whole year.

The rooms of the Dobšinská Ice Cave iced up by repeating this cycle for many centuries. The rich decoration contains monuments mainly created by the air-flow. The whole ice capacity is estimated to approximately 110 000 m³.