Lipa Cave – Magic of the underground world

Published on July 21, 2016

Lipa cave is located in Cetinje, under the viewpoint Belveder, from which you can see Skadar Lake valley. With its wondrous gallery of underground halls and passageways, the cave represents speleological object of extreme value.

Approximately 2.500 meters of explored hallways offer a variety of several interesting halls, galleries and an abundance of cave ornaments. Underground streams, lakes and springs accentuate the cave’s natural beauty making it striking. Lipa cave is the first and the only show cave in Montenegro made accessible to tourists. It offers a charming diversity of karst features as well as a unique experience of the underground world to all of those who visit it. The cave is 33 km away from Budva, 35 km away from Podgorica, and only 5 km from old town Cetinje. The authenticity of the cave rests in its truly wild beauty which captivates and makes the visit a memorable experience.

The cave’s beauty has been well known since the 19^th century. Among many other Montenegrin dignitaries, Petar II Petrovic-Njegos and King Nikola I paid it great attention. The first written record of the cave was published in 1839, which is deemed as the actual date of discovery, even though it is known that the cave had been discovered much earlier by the villagers of Lipa Dobrska. It was Henry Layard, an English archeologist, who visited the cave in 1839 and made the first written record of its wealth. In 1887 Russian geographer, Pavel Rovinski, wrote about the valuable ornaments and the cave’s lasting impression on the visitors as a testament to Lipa Cave. One of the explorers was the founder of modern speleology, Edouard-Alfred Martel.

Lipa cave has many tales which were passed down from one generation to the next, especially among the villagers of Lipa Dobrska. Today, our guides tell them as passionately as they were told in the olden days. The locals remember the cave having been used as a source of drinking water by their ancestors who named some of the springs inside the cave, such as Iconostasis, Gemini, Intestines, Tongue, et cetera.

During his reign, King Nikola I used to bring international officials, who were staying in Montenegro at the time, to visit the cave. Today, we walk in the royal footsteps through millennia-old underground corridors. The starting point is the parking lot from which the visitors are taken to the cave’s main entrance by the road train from which point on they continue on foot through the cave accompanied by one of our trained guides. Be aware that the temperature inside the cave is constantly between 8 and 12 degrees Celsius, which comes in as a much needed refreshment in hot summer months.

BOX:  In the footsteps of the kings, we walk in the royal footsteps through millennia-old underground corridors.

www.lipa-cave.me

Should you decide to visit Lipa cave you can choose one of the three available tours: Cave at glance, Cave adventure or Cave extreme.