Museums

Cave and Karst Museums

Speleological Museums

A cave museum is a museum dedicated to cave science (speleology) in all its aspects, but there are also museums that focus on one aspect that is of great local importance, for example cave bears. Alternative names are speleological museum or karst museum.

Speleology is a science that in a way lies at the intersection of a number of other sciences. It deals with caves, or the umbrella term karst, and utilizes all other scientific disciplines. Geology is just as important for the formation of caves as chemistry or even physics, while speleothems clearly belong to mineralogy. Cave animals are an important and interesting subgroup in biology, and the contents of caves are of great importance for archaeology and palaeontology. And this description of speleology at the intersection of various sciences is also a wonderful definition of a cave museum, also called a speleological museum. This type of museum is usually dedicated to a specific karst area, it shows the geology of the area with pictures and often with a cave replica. Other topics include speleothems, cave animals, the typical vegetation of the dry karst surface, the fossils in the rock and the archaeological remains in the cave.

We describe cave museums on showcaves.com because they are very closely related to our topic. Actually, they fall out of the definition: they are not underground. But their topic, their content, is underground, they are dedicated to caves, just like us. If they are dedicated to a sub-science, such as palaeontology or cave biology, the type of cave is irrelevant. However, if they are dedicated to cave formation itself, the subject is practically always the karst cave, the cave in limestone. There are very few that are dedicated to lava caves or gypsum caves, but that's it. The large number of other cave types, which are admittedly very rare, are not represented in museums.

There are three types of cave museums. The most obvious are so-called show cave museums. They are created as an additional feature of a show cave for its visitors. They serve several purposes: to inform visitors beyond what is conveyed on the tour, to keep them occupied until the tour begins, as an additional source of income, and possibly also to present the treasures of the show cave, i.e. to a certain extent as an object of representation. The second type is the cave department or cave exhibition, i.e. an area of a museum dedicated to the subject of speleology. This happens either when the museum takes over a collection, a caving association is looking for a place for its collection, or when the museum actually covers this area, for example, a natural history museum in an area with a lot of karst. And finally, there are also museums that are actually dedicated solely to this topic and are not affiliated with a commercial operation such as a show cave, independent museums. They are either run by a supporting association or by the municipality, often both in cooperation. Of course, these museums also serve the purpose of attracting visitors to the location and represent an attraction in their own right. Such museums also often have a specialization, for example, there are several museums that specialize in cave bears.

A word about the history of cave museums. Museums evolved from the rulers' cabinets of rarities, giving rise to art museums and natural history museums. Cave museums, on the other hand, originated in show caves, quite naturally by presenting the finds from the cave in the entrance area. These were archaeological and palaeontological finds, but also speleothems and perhaps even some memorabilia from exploration and development. The first such collection that was more than just a shelf was the Höhlenmuseum Rübeland (Rübeland Cave Museum). As early as 1892, an exhibition was set up in the entrance building of the Baumann Cave, which existed until the First World War. Otherwise, there were mainly temporary exhibitions. The only exception was the Erste Österreichische Museum für Höhlenkunde (First Austrian Museum of Speleology), which was set up by Georg Lahner of the Austrian Speleological Society at a fairytale railroad near Linz. This exhibition even had live cave olms as a highlight. Otherwise, cave museums were only established in the 1930s, but then in large numbers.

Country	Museum	Category	Topics
Australia	Wonambi Fossil Centre	Show Cave	Palaeontology of Naracoorte Caves
Austria	Höhlenmuseum Eisensteinhöhle	Show Cave	Speleology
	Höhlenmuseum Schönbergalm	Show Cave	Speleology
Bulgaria	Museum of Speleology and Bulgarian Karst	Independent Museum	Speleology, Cave Bear
Czech Republic	Dům přírody Moravského krasu	Independent Museum	Speleology, Moravsky Kras, Iron Mining
France	Le Musée de l'Ours de Cavernes	Independent Museum	Cave Bear
	Grotte Taillerie du Puy de Dôme	Independent Museum	Speleology
Germany	Dechenhöhle	Show Cave	Caves, Dinosaurs, Local History
	Höhlenmuseum Frasdorf	Independent Museum	Speleology, Karst Area
	Höhlenkundliches Museum Laichingen	Show Cave	Speleology, Cave Bear
	Neanderthal Museum	Independent Museum	Palaeontology, Neanderthaler
Indonesia	Museum Karst Indonesia	Independent Museum	Speleology
Italy	Museum Ladin Ursus ladinicus	Independent Museum	Cave Bear
	Grotta Monello - Museo del Carsismo Ibleo	Independent Museum	Speleology
New Zealand	Waitomo Caves Discovery Centre	Show Cave	Speleology
Portugal	Museu Vulcanoespeleológico "Machado Fagundes"	Independent Museum	Speleology, Geology, Volcanism
	Nascentes do Alviela (Carsoscópio)	Independent Museum	Karst, Geology, Hydrology, Biology
Romania	Muzeul de Speologie "Emil Racoviţă"	Independent Museum	Speleology, Biospeleology
	Institutul de Speologie "Emil Racoviţă"	Independent Museum	Speleology, Biospeleology
Slovakia	Slovenské múzeum ochrany prírody a jaskyniarstva	Independent Museum	Speleology, Mineralogy
	Banícke múzeum Rožňava	Cave Department	Mining, Speleology
Slovenia	Vivarium	Independent Museum	Biospeleology
	Expo Cave Karst	Show Cave	Speleology, Show Cave History
Switzerland	Musée Suisse de la Spéléologie	Independent Museum	Speleology, Mineralogy
United States of America	Hidden River Cave & American Cave Museum	Show Cave	Speleology
	Bluff Dweller's Cave and Browning Museum	Show Cave	Speleology, Archaeology
	Florida Museum of Natural History	Cave Department	Speleology, Cave Replica, Natural History
	Floyd Collins Museum	Independent Museum	Speleology, Local History, Floyd Collins

• See also
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