May 14, 2023 at 1:05 am
for the transmission
14 05 2023 | environment
ORF/MATTHIAS HAYDN
The entrance resembles a bunker. An unadorned steel door prevents free access to Devil’s Throat Cave. If not for the small souvenir stalls and snack bars, it would be easy to miss the hidden gate. A guard finally opens the heavy door and lets the walking party inside. First he goes through a long tunnel. The walls are concrete, it’s dripping from the ceiling. At the end of the shaft, you come to a staircase carved into the rocks that descends into a dark gorge.
A strange hiss gets louder with each level. An underground waterfall generates the noise. At the end of the stairs you are in a huge hall washed by the water inside the mountain. A grid protects against falling into floods. The roar here is deafening. The lights come on and impressively stage the “Devil’s Throat”. The masses of water fall 42 meters in front of the astonished visitors of the Garloto, the gorge, into the depths and accumulate in the Dröhnendes Saal. It is the tallest underground waterfall on the Balkan Peninsula, it is said.
craggy cave
The cave is located in Rhodopes, a truncated mountain range in southern Bulgaria. In the densely forested karst landscape, there are deep gorges, impressive rock formations such as the Wonderful Bridges and numerous caves. The Dyavolsko Garlo, the Devil’s Throat, is a particularly rugged and branching cave. A few meters after flowing through the Dröhnende Saal, the water disappears back into the rock.
To this day it has not been researched which paths the water takes through the rocks, and many other riddles of the caves remain unsolved. For this reason, legends have always been told about Garganta do Diabo. In ancient times, the cave was considered a gateway to the underworld. Orpheus, for example, is said to have bravely descended to bring back his Eurydice, who had been killed by a snake, from the underworld. Her singing and her charming playing on the lyre apparently persuaded the god of the underworld, Hades, to agree that the Thracian singer, as an exception, retrieve his beloved. The only condition: on the way back to the upper world, he must not turn around to look at her.
Memory Fountain
Everything went well until Booming Hall, but when they passed through it, the bard could no longer hear his beloved’s footsteps because of the roar of the waterfall. Orpheus turned and lost his muse to the underworld forever. A fountain, said to be located in that very spot, reminds visitors of the drama to this day before they brave the 301 steps back into daylight.