Cuevas de Campanet

Coves de Campanet - Caves of Campanet

Useful Information

a massive stalagmite. © **Ulli Riemer**, with kind permission.

Location:	Autovía Palma-Sa Pobla, salida 37, 07310 - Campanet (Mallorca - Illes Balears). Near Campanet, Mallorca. From C713 Palma - Alciúdä, 34 km from Palma, 16 km from Alciúdä turn north on PMV-2132 2 km to Campanet. 2 km to the North. 40 km northeast of Palma de Mallorca in Campanet. C-713 Palma to Alcúdia motorway exit at km 39 signposted Cami de na Pontons. (39.7926183, 2.9683618)
Open:	APR to SEP daily 10-19. OCT to MAR daily 10-18. Closed 01-JAN, 25-DEC. [2026]
Fee:	Adults EUR 17, Children (4-12) EUR 9, Children (0-3) free. [2026]
Classification:	Karst Cave
Light:	Electric Light
Dimension:	T=21 °C.
Guided tours:	self guided, L=500 m, D=40 min.
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:	Anne Oldham (1972): Majorca, The British Caver, Vol 59, pp 5-10. Guillem X. Pons, Mateo Vadell (2011): Biospeleologia de les Cavitats de les Illes Balears: Invertebrats Terrestres ENDINS, 35 / Mon. Soc. Hist. Nat. Balears, 17. Mallorca, 2011, pp 241-256. ISSN 0211-2515. pdf
Address:	Coves de Campanet, Autovía Palma-Sa Pobla, salida 37, 07310 - Campanet (Mallorca - Illes Balears), Tel: +34-971-516130. 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

JUN-1945	discovered by workers digging a well.
10-NOV-1948	opened to the public.

Description

abundance of speleothems. © **Ulli Riemer**, with kind permission.

The cave was discovered in 1945 whilst workers were digging a well and opened to the public in 1948. Although not as crowded as some of the other caves on the island, the speleothems alone are well worth a visit.

The cave is consists of several chambers which extend to just over 300 m. They are formed in the dolomites of the Upper Triassic of the Rhaetian Age.

A short artificial tunnel leads to the Sala de la Palmera or Palm Tree Chamber. To the north west a low passage leads to the Sala del Llac or Lake Chamber which is graced by a crystal clear lake which reflects the surrounding speleothems. A circular route around this chamber leads back to the Sala de la Palma. Travelling north eastwards one enters the final room, the Sala Romántica or Romantic Chamber. This is the largest chamber in the cave being 50 m across and 10 m high. The chamber is noted for the massive stalagmite columns.

Text by Tony Oldham (2002). With kind permission. Date of visit 28 Dec 1971.

The Coves de Campanet or Cuevas de Campanet (Caves of Campanet) is located on the southern slopes of the northern mountain ridge of the island Mallorca. The view is on the plain between the two mountain ridges, the central part of the island which is fertile and used for agriculture. Beneath the view, the site has a restaurant with great food, especially seafood, and the cave. While the cave is well known and popular it is not the biggest show cave on the island. This is actually a pro, because a visit is much less crowded, its actually a chance to explore a beautiful cave at your leisure, in a calm and relaxed atmosphere,. On the other hand there are day trips for tourists without a car to the two main caves, we could not find similar tours for Campanet. It was named after nearby village Campanet, where the four lane motorway from Palma becomes a normal road. So it is easily accessible if you have a car.

It began, when Guillem Torres i Cladera, the owner of this Possessió, decided to dig a well. He needed water for his fields, and so he was looking for a good place where groundwater could be found. Bartomeu Palou i Bennàsser, nicknamed Xineta, who was the mason of the farm, knew about the small hole in the ground, only 15 cm in diameter, which emanated cool and humid air. He also thought there was the sound of water, and so they tried to open the hole and to reach the water. As a result they discovered the cave. Bartolomeu built a stone staircase into the cave and Antoni Salvà i Torres acquired the permission to run a show cave. The surroundings of the cave were built by the architect Josep Ferragut. The cave was developed and opened to the public on 10-NOV-1948.

The cave is more or less in the same state as it was in 1948, of course the trails were modernized and the light system too, but the general layout is still the same. Its actually a huge chamber or large passage with numerous speleothems, and a trail which allows a round trip though this chamber. The speleothems are quite easy to see, the most spectacular feature of the cave is not visible to visitors. This cave has numerous endemic animals, which are generally quire small or live underwater. Among them is a cave pseudoscorpion which is endemic to the cave, in other words it has never been found in any other location, so it was named Chthonius campaneti. The animal was discovered in 2013 during research by the Museu Balear de Ciències Naturals (MBCN), the University of Alicante and the University of Navarra. The ground and robber beetle Henrotius jordai and various aquatic crustaceans are endemic to the island. And there were fossils of endemic species, which were discovered during the development of the cave. When they opened the entrance they had to remove the sediments which blocked it, and those contained numerous fossil bones. The most important is Myotragus balearicus, an endemic Plio-Pleistocene vertebrate of the islands of Mallorca and Menorca. It is a species in the genus small bovids, which arrived in the Balearic Islands more than 5 million years ago, during the Messinian when the sea was much lower and the island was connected to Europe by land. It became extinct 4,000 years ago with the arrival of humans to the Balearic archipelago.

Close to the cave there is another karst related site which is worth a visit. Actually it is quite popular in winter, when the winter rains fall. There is an intermittent spring which produces water only after rains, during summer it is normally dry. It is named Ses Fonts Ufanes and is a half hour hike from the cave. It is located in a tranquil holm oak forest

Cuevas de Campanet Gallery