Punkva Caves

Punkva Caves

Don’t miss a guided tour through one of the best-known subterranean areas of the Moravian Karst, where you’ll get to travel along an underground river!

The Moravian Karst is the biggest and most significant karst region in the Czech Republic. Its attractions include several subterranean areas, with the greatest interest traditionally being in the Punkva Caves, where, apart from cathedrals of stalagmites and stalactites, you can also visit the bottom of Macocha Abyss and take a boat along the subterranean Punkva River.

Walk or take the train to the caves

The caves are located in the Pustý žleb canyon, 2 km from the tourist information centre and Skalní mlýn restaurant upstream along the Punkva river. If you don’t want to walk, you can take the tourist train from the mill. The journey, which lasts about an hour, leads through massive rock cathedrals decorated with stalagmites and stalactites to the bottom of Macocha Abyss, continuing with a motorboat journey along the deep, greenish waters of the subterranean Punkva river. The journey is interrupted for a visit to the Masaryk cathedral, one of the most beautiful subterranean spaces in the Moravian Karst.

On and above the bottom of the Abyss

A visit to the bottom of Macocha Abyss is a stunning experience for big and small. The Abyss reaches a depth of nearly 140 metres. The lower lake that can be seen at the bottom of the Abyss, however, is forty metres deeper! You can also look into Machocha from above, from two lookout bridges. Leave the Punkva Caves via a cable car (the only one in South Moravia!) then walk back to Skalní mlýn.

Scared of the water?

Sometimes in spring, and after big rainfalls, there’s so much water in the Punkva that boats only cover a small section of the route, or tours are cancelled; if this happens, entrance is reduced. Boat journeys are, however, an integral part of normal tours and, for example, it is not possible to see the Masaryk cathedral any other way.