The Unicorn Cave () is the largest

show cave A show cave—also called tourist cave, public cave, and, in the United States, commercial cave—is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits. Definition A show cave is a cave that has been made accessible to ...

in the West Harz, about northwest of

Scharzfeld Scharzfeld is a village in the borough of Herzberg am Harz in the district of Göttingen in South Lower Saxony, Germany. Scharzfeld lies at a height of about above sea level and has 1,765 inhabitants (as at 1 October 2006). The first recor ...

in the borough of

Herzberg am Harz Herzberg am Harz (Esperanto: ) is a town in the Göttingen (district), Göttingen district of Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography Herzberg is situated on the southwestern rim of the Harz mountain range and the Harz National Park. Natural monument ...

in central

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is a

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

cave developed in dolomite strata that is part of the

Zechstein The Zechstein ( German either from ''mine stone'' or ''tough stone'') is a unit of sedimentary rock layers of Late Permian ( Lopingian) age located in the European Permian Basin which stretches from the east coast of England to northern Poland. T ...

History

The cave was first mentioned in the records in 1541. In 1686,

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to ...

visited the cave and wrote a report about it mentioning the local trade with

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

artefacts. In those days, fossilized bones supposed to be from unicorns were ground and used for making medicine. In the 17th century,

Otto von Guericke Otto von Guericke ( , , ; spelled Gericke until 1666; – ) was a German scientist, inventor, mathematician and physicist. His pioneering scientific work, the development of experimental methods and repeatable demonstrations on the physics of ...

, the mayor of

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

, wrote a newspaper article about the finding of some ancient animal bones in the Zeunickenberg, a Harz mountain near

Quedlinburg Quedlinburg () is a town situated just north of the Harz mountains, in the Harz (district), district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. As an influential and prosperous trading centre during the early Middle Ages, Quedlinburg becam ...

. Based on Guericke’s writings, Leibniz drew a fictional reconstruction of the unicorn's skeleton using the bones that had been found in the cave and published the drawing in his book ''

Protogaea ''Protogaea'' is a work by Gottfried Leibniz on geology and natural history. Unpublished in his lifetime, but made known by Johann Georg von Eckhart in 1719, it was conceived as a preface to his incomplete history of the House of Brunswick. Lif ...

''. In 1872,

Rudolf Virchow Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow ( ; ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder o ...

carried out an excavation there and determined that the unknown bones actually stem from extinct animals like mammoths and cave bears. Over 70 species of animal have been identified from the many bones that have been found, including 60 species of mammal; amongst them the cave lion and the

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...

. In 1905, the Unicorn Cave was made accessible to visitors by the construction of an entrance gallery. Since then, of the total length of have been opened up as a show cave. The Unicorn Cave is one of the three information centres of the Harz – Brunswick Land – Eastphalia National Geopark. The Unicorn Cave has a checkpoint (no. 101) which is part of the

Harzer Wandernadel The Harzer Wandernadel is a system of hiking awards in the Harz mountains in central Germany. Hikers (or mountain bikers) can earn awards at different levels of challenge by walking to the various checkpoints in the network and stamping their ...

network of hiking trails. In 2021, the

Giant deer bone of Einhornhöhle The Giant deer bone of Einhornhöhle is a piece of art made in the Middle Paleolithic period by Neanderthals. Dated to 51,000 years ago, the piece is the oldest piece of art ever found in Europe. It was found in the ''Einhornhöhle'' ('unicor ...

was found in the cave, the oldest piece of European art ever discovered, and attributed to Neanderthals.

Folklore

According to local folklore, an old and mystical woman lived in a cave in the nearby village of

. As she was a pagan, she was forced to flee from a group of Frankish warriors, led by a monk in a black habit. A

is said to have appeared and protected her from the pursuers, allowing her to escape and join the witches' community on the Brocken Mountain. The unicorn then chased away the warriors and black monk, causing him to disappear into a deep hole while running. This hole then led to the Unicorn Cave.

References

External links

Unicorn Cave
at www.showcaves.com.
Unicorn Cave: German home page

Ralf Nielbock: The Unicorn Cave near Scharzfeld/Harz (pdf)
(191 kB)

{{Authority control Show caves in Germany Caves of the Harz Landforms of Lower Saxony Tourist attractions in Lower Saxony Unicorns Caves of Germany

History

Folklore

See also

References

External links