Candles Hall
White stalagmites.
Zátonyi Sándor, (ifj.) Fizped — CC BY 3.0 · Zátonyi Sándor, (ifj.) Fizped — CC BY 3.0 · Zátonyi Sándor, (ifj.) Fizped — CC BY 3.0 · Zátonyi Sándor, (ifj.) Fizped — CC BY 3.0 · Zátonyi Sándor, (ifj.) Fizped — CC BY 3.0
Bears' Cave is a limestone cave in the western Apuseni Mountains, on the edge of the village of Chișcău in Bihor County, northwest Romania, about 74 km southeast of Oradea in a straight line. More than 200,000 people visit it every year. The cave stayed sealed until 17 September 1975, when blasting at a marble quarry opened its entrance; a miner from the village went down first, and a group of amateur cavers explored it three days later. After five years of preparation guided by the Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology and the Oradea museum, it opened to visitors on 14 July 1980. It takes its name from the 140 cave bear skeletons found here in 1983, an extinct species that lived in the cave some 15,000 years ago. The cave has three galleries and four halls, among them the Candles Hall, the Spaghetti Hall and the Bones Hall, decorated with countless white and golden stalactites and stalagmites under the lights. Visitors go through on guided tours along railed walkways among the formations and see cave bear remains in the Bones Hall. The cave stays cool all year, so bring a light jacket.
White stalagmites.
Bear remains.
Under the lights.
Chișcău, Bihor County, Romania
Yes, inside the cave.
A light jacket; the cave is cool.