Gruta Santa Rita


Useful Information

Location: Lajedinho - BA 46825-000.
(-12.294042, -41.040139)
Open: no restrictions.
[2023]
Fee: free.
[2023]
Classification: SpeleologyKarst cave
Light:  
Dimension: L=600 m.
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography: Augusto Auler (2011): Novas cavernas mapeadas na região central da Bahia Instituto do Carste.
Address: Gruta Santa Rita, Lajedinho - BA 46825-000.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

2011 cave surveyed.

Description

Gruta Santa Rita is a huge cave passage with a sandy floor and a few massive speleothems. It contains a cave church with an altar, which is the target of traditional pilgrimage. People bring candles and various votive gifts which they place on and around the altar, and around a pilar in the middle of the room. So this speleothem has become a de-facto altar. There is a wide paved walkway into the cave and to the altar.

The cave was surveyed in 2011 by members of the Instituto do Carste and the Meandros Espeleo Clube, Daniel Menin, Leda Zogbi and Augusto Auler. A very brief description was published by the Instituto do Carste on their website. And then something weird happened, a Wikipedia page in English was created which copies the brief description, but has replaced all the dates in the text with wrong values. The length of the cave, which is 600 m, is given on the Wikipedia page with more than 17 km. Even the name was replaced by Conjunto Santa Rita. It is rare that Wikipedia pages are really poor, but this page is so far the first place on our weirdness-list.