Brotschgrotte

Grotte du Brotsch

Useful Information

Location:	67700 Haegen. (48.702598, 7.325729)
Open:	no restrictions. [2023]
Fee:	free. [2023]
Classification:	Karst cave
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:	L=12 m, A=500 m m asl.
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Claude Chabert, Jean-Yves Bigot (1993): À travers les grès des Vosges. Matériaux pour servir à la connaissance du Bas-Rhin Grottes & Gouffres, bull. S. C. Paris, n° 129, pp. 4-9.
Address:	Office De Tourisme Du Pays De Saverne, Cloister of the Récollets, 4 rue Poincaré, 67700 Saverne, Tel: +33-3-88-91-80-47. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

16-JUN-1991

surveyed by Claude Chabert and Jean-Yves Bigot.

Description

The Brotschgrotte or Grotte du Brotsch (Brotsch Cave) is the largest cave of the Alsace. It is an erosional cave in sandstone, and is actually a huge cavern or rock shelter. The Vosges are known for sandstone rocks, Buntsandstein or Lower Triassic, which are suitable only for erosional and rare tectonic caves. So caves are, in general, very rare and small, why this rather small cave nevertheless is the largest. It is actually better known as a climbing location than as a cave.

The Alsace or Elsaß is a region which changed ownership several during the 19th and early 20th century. The locals actually speak Alemannisch, a sort of German, but the official language is French, obviously. Nevertheless, the official name of this cave is German.

Saint Gall is a hamlet in the municipality of Thal-Marmoutier, at the foot of the Brotschberg (Rocher du Brotsch). Here lived a miserly innkeeper who did her customers no honor: she only half-filled the glass of schnapps they ordered. So, enraged, they put a curse on the woman: when she died, they condemned her to haunt the cave and live in a bottle. That's why, on windy days, you can hear her howling, and the wind that carries her cries away says tirelessly: "Mach de spunte uff! Mache de spunte uff!". (open the bunghole, so I can get out!)