Driny is a limestone cave in West Slovakia in the

Little Carpathians The Little Carpathians (also: ''Lesser Carpathians'', sk, Malé Karpaty; german: Kleine Karpaten; hu, Kis-Kárpátok) are a low, about 100 km long, mountain range, part of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountains are situated in Western Slo ...

Mountains. It is located around 2 km southwest of the village of

Smolenice Smolenice ( hu, Szomolány; german: Smolenitz) is a village and municipality of Trnava District in the Trnava Region of Slovakia, on the foothills of the Little Carpathians. It is 60 km northeast of Bratislava and 25 km northwest of Trnava ...

. The cave's entrance altitude is 399 m. The first attempt to enter the cave was made by Prussian soldiers, who were camping nearby during the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

. It was finally explored in 1929, and in 1934 the first 175-metre route was opened. In 1950 other parts of the cave were explored and in 1959, the cave was reopened. The cave was declared a nature monument in 1968 and became part of the newly designated

Little Carpathians Protected Landscape Area Little Carpathians Protected Landscape Area ( sk, Chránená krajinná oblasť Malé Karpaty) is one of the 14 protected landscape areas in Slovakia. The Landscape Area is situated in the Little Carpathians, part of the Carpathian Mountains, in ...

in 1976. Today, of the total explored length of 636 m, 550 m are open to the public.

External links

Driny on the Slovak Caves Association page
Show caves in Slovakia Geography of Trnava Region Tourist attractions in Trnava Region {{Trnava-geo-stub