The Crystal Cave

It is located in the rocky ridge of Byalata Staga, visible from the valley of the Zlatitsa River. The remains of mills and watermills still stood along the valley, and groups of several vegetable gardens surrounded by stone walls were arranged in a stepped pattern along the banks. At the end of the 1960s, yellowish crystals were still strewn along the path under the rocks. The cave itself is small, semi-lit, consisting of only one oval hall measuring 21/12m and about 6m high. There are several stalactites in the cave, but that is not its beauty.

• read more

  The entire floor is covered with variously sized yellow and brownish prismatic crystals ranging in size from a pea to a brick. This is calcite - a mineral that makes up many of the cave formations. It is actually a crystalline form of the limestone that makes up the surrounding rocks. Unfortunately, the beauty of calcite fades over time, because the surface of the crystals dulls and darkens when exposed to the elements. From the entrance to the bottom of the hall, you descend along a gentle scree, which consists entirely of thousands of calcite crystals. They say that in the past, when the interior of the cave was illuminated with a torch or lamp, the entire cavity shone like a fairy-tale treasure. Now we cannot enjoy this spectacle, but the name of the cave has left a memory of its beauty. In fact, it is partly the result of human activity. In the 1930s, a local ‘entrepreneur’ began to break calcite from the walls of the cave and take it down to the station with sacks loaded on donkeys. In non-ferrous metallurgy, it finds application in the de-ironing of copper ore. Thus, the cavity gradually expanded, and some of the crystals were scattered even along the path to the Crystal Cave. But the business turned out to be unprofitable and quickly declined. Later goats and sheep were brought into the hole to rest, and time erased the shine of the calcite, but the crystals remained as a memory of this episode in the history of the region.