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National nature monuments – Milada Cave

The caves are a part natural heritage of the Slovak Republic. The Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic no. 543/2002 of the Legal Codes On Nature and Landscape Protection enacted all the caves and abysses natural monuments. The most important ones are declared by the Ministry of the Environment the national nature monuments. All the show caves belong by now among the most important caves.

Milada Cave

The cave is situated on the Silická Plateau, 1 km to the southeast from the Silická Brezová. It was discovered by J. Majko with colleagues in 1946 through 19 m deep abyss, which opens to the underground riverbed passage. The cave is formed by river passage and several collapse halls and domes. One of them extends 65 m above the riverbed. In 1960, J. Jirásek penetrated through the water siphon, behind which he discovered spaces 360 m long. The cave ends with a flow through lake with water siphon. The length is 800 m. Cave fills are stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone curtains and lakes. The entrance adit was thirled later.

Milada Cave represents a ponor part of the Brezová-Kečovo underground hydrological system, which is formed in the Mesozoic Middle Triassic pale Wetterstein limestones of the Silica Nappe. The underground stream from the Milada Cave appears, after an unknown section, in the lower part of the Bezodná ľadnica Abyss, from where again through unknown spaces reaches the Kečovo spring.

This underground locality is an important wintering place for bats. From the 14 recorded species the dominating are Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros), Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) and Greater Mouse-Eared Bat (Myotis myotis). Irregularly occurs also the Mediterranean Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus euryale). The invertebrates are represented by cave isopod Mesoniscus graniger, troglophilic multipede Polydesmus denticulatus and others.