The waterfall mouth
Water thundering from the cave's lips in terraces to the lake — the postcard before entering.
Fafner — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Zygmunt Szczotkowski — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Zygmunt Szczotkowski — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Zygmunt Szczotkowski — CC BY-SA 3.0
In summer its magic is the boat: an hour's sail from Interlaken to the Beatushöhlen landing, ten minutes up the waterfall path, cave and terrace lunch, bus back for variety — or reversed to dodge the midday crush. The steamer's next town is Thun with its castle for day-wideners.
Among Europe's most family-fit caves: wide lit passages, full railings, no crawls or true narrowness — lovely awe, not fear. Under four the issue is steps and cold, not cave — the carrier solves it.
Traditions make him an Irish (or by some tellings Swiss) missionary of the sixth century who drove out the cave's 'dragon' — likely the age's reading of defeated paganism — living and dying its hermit. His supposed grave made a major pilgrimage until the Reformation banned it — the legend outliving the ban.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
In a cliff over Lake Thun the Beatus caves open their mouth, waterfalls tumbling from the threshold in terraces towards the lake — the entrance scene alone worth the trip, and legend completes it: here the Irish hermit Beatus slew the mountain's dragon with his cross in the sixth century, making the cave his cell and a medieval pilgrimage. Inside runs a lit kilometre of vaulted passages, stalagmites and dripping living halls — the Mirror Hall with its still pools the crown — on a well-railed path at constant cold (8–10°: a jacket is summer law). The small cave museum and rebuilt hermit's hut at the mouth finish the tale. Arrival is half the outing: the Lake Thun steamer calls below in summer, then the waterfall path climbs, or bus 21 from Interlaken — and the terrace restaurant over the turquoise lake is among the region's finest sits.
Water thundering from the cave's lips in terraces to the lake — the postcard before entering.
Still pools doubling the stone — the lit kilometre's crown.
Beatus and his cross against the mountain's beast — the Oberland's founding tale.
Sundlauenen, 3800 Interlaken