2023-08-30 16:14:00
Between Sion and Sierre in the canton of Valais lies the St. Léonard cave lake, Europe’s largest lake accessible for underground boat trips. It is a good 6,000 square meters in size, located under the Valais vineyards. Despite the light shows, sometimes lively groups and evening concerts, this lake in the mountains has something mystical and mysterious about it. You can even row underground here, but fallen rocks block the journey after almost 300 meters.
In Greek mythology, the Styx is the border river to the realm of the dead, but the people here also had a legend: unmarried women once saw the face of their future husband if they only looked at the water of their lake. It was known for a long time, but it was only after an earthquake in the 1940s that the water level dropped so much that guests could row on it.
The water shimmers green, turquoise and blue, it glitters on the rock cover as if it were stars and not minerals, clever illumination looks like candlelight. The paddle strokes warp the surface of the Lac Souterrain de Saint-Léonard in bizarre distorted images, the shadows of trout scurry through the crystal-clear water, strange games of light and dark.
Boats are available for visitors to explore the cave lake
Those: pa/prism/Gerth Roland
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A shore leave, i.e. a few steps underground on the bank, is possible and maybe you will also see bats hanging from the ceiling. The wine barrels by Christophe Bétrisey are much more earthly. He’s aging a few batches from his vineyard down here, 70 meters below the vines (lac-souterrain.com).
Ham in the asphalt bath in the La Presta mine
The light from the fluorescent tubes shines on wet rock. The heavy steel doors slam shut, then the tunnel is quiet again. As quiet as it has been since 1986, when the last shift ended here. Today, it’s visitors who break that silence – at the asphalt mine of La Presta in the Val de Travers in the Swiss Jura.
Until 1986, the La Presta asphalt mine was still being worked on
Which: Asphalt mines
Asphalt was mined on an industrial scale in the Val de Travers for more than a hundred years, it was considered to be particularly good for the streets of important cities – only the best for the boulevards in Paris and for the highways in London, Budapest, New York. The asphalt is in the stone, this material shimmers matt black.
A part of the once huge tunnel system is accessible to visitors. You can see old machines, the shoring and abandoned drives, the rail lines. And the rock from which the people of the Neuchâtel Asphalte Company once boiled road surface.
Visitors can still see old machines in what was once a huge tunnel system
Quelle: picture alliance/KEYSTONE
What the miners also cooked here was ham in an asphalt bath. Today, visitors can also taste the specialty. The ham is wrapped airtight in baking paper and clean sacking, so the aromas stay in and the roast is nice and juicy; then it is cooked for a few hours in asphalt at 180 degrees Celsius. You can also enjoy a local Neuchâtel wine (mines-asphalte.ch).
A cathedral in the stalactite cave of Vallorbe
The entrance to this fantastic underworld is inconspicuous. At the foot of a 750 meter high cliff, the Orbe River flows out of the limestone massif – it conceals the stalactite cave of Vallorbe, located in western Switzerland, in the canton of Vaud. Limestone is pitted and absorbs water, which is why the karst of the Joux valley and Mont Tendre is full of caves, cathedral-like halls.
In the stalactite cave of Vallorbe, the amazement of the visitors grows with every meter they cover
Quelle: Vincent Bourrut / Association for Development
They are full of stalactites, because lime is dissolved in every water. And constant dripping not only wears away the stone, it also builds up stalactite. Drop by drop, millions of years.
This incredible journey into the underground begins unspectacularly: A still lake in the first room and then one with emerald-green water, first stalactites in the citadel and then a curtain made of tubes, a kind of curtain structure on the rock face.
The path in the stalactite cave leads visitors directly past some impressive stalagmites
What: picture alliance / prisma
It keeps getting bigger, more powerful, more and more fantastic. Chandeliers, bison and fairy treasures believed to be recognized by speleologists and they also called the formations that way. It all ends after a number of stairs, footbridges and bridges spanning a raging river in a gigantic hall they called the cathedral.
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First soft music sounds, and individual spotlights set the scene for the first stalactites, light and music increase – a thoroughly successful show that is overwhelming. The goosebumps don’t just come from the coolness down here (grottesdevallorbe.ch).
The mills in the Le Locle cave
Not far from the French border, in the canton of Neuchâtel, there is a cave that is unique in Europe – with mills in the mountain. The town of Le Locle is considered the cradle of Swiss watchmaking. Around 500 years ago, the people here came up with technical finesse: water wheels arranged one above the other in a mountain, which drove machines for sawing, threshing and grinding – the cave mills of Le Locle.
A staircase leads down from the museum, soon you can feel the coolness in the mountain. From the modern exhibition rooms it is only a few steps into a bizarre underworld.
The cave mills of Le Locle are unique in Europe
Which: © Guillaume Perret // www.guillaumeperret.com
Water is dripping everywhere and you can hear a roaring stream, grinders and water wheels are turning, the scenery is eerie. And the fact that this cave was used to dump slaughterhouse waste after the mills gave up in the 19th century doesn’t make it any better. Clearing these out again almost 200 years later was the hardest piece of work in the construction of this museum.
Of course, there is no longer any sign of this, it smells of wet rock. The steep corridors and stairs lead into the rock, a waterfall rushes down into the depths – at least the speleologists know how many meters further down here.
It becomes more mysterious and remote with every step, and how oppressive it was for the people to lug grain, flax and wood back and forth here. Always close to the turning and clattering machines, always dark, always wet. How many got under the wheels? In this cave, this machine in the middle of the mountain, you not only breathe in the omnipresent cool humidity, but also plenty of history (lesmoulins.ch).
The Kristallkluft Gerstenegg in the Bernese Oberland
When the stones in the earth’s mantle melt, beautiful pieces are created from certain ingredients (and if the other conditions are right): precious stones and crystals. The latter can be found, for example, near the Grimsel Pass between the Bernese Oberland and the canton of Valais. And when the forces of tectonics lift them up, in this case the Gerstenegg Crystal Chasm, there’s even a chance to see the minerals.
There are hydroelectric power stations in the upper Haslital. Electricity is generated through tunnels and caverns blasted deep into the rock, water and electricity flow and entire streets run along them. When the miners completed these facilities, they also opened a showcase of the history of the earth, they found one of the most beautiful crystal chasms in the Alps.
Mountain crystals in the sheltered Gerstenegg crystal gap
Quelle: pa/KEYSTONE/GAETAN BALLY
You can take a look inside during the power plant tours: when the guide turns on the light, they sparkle and glitter a thousandfold; it is a beautiful treasury (behind glass) like that of a fairy tale king. Thousands of clear quartz crystals, some with sparkling pink fluorite.
There are minerals and crystals on display in many places, but here you are – after a long, spectacular journey – right in the middle. And learn how these wonders of nature came about. You can visit and inspect them for a short time. This keeps the crystals mysterious and something special. And you might be a little enchanted yourself. Who knows anatase and adular?
On steles next to the crystal chasm it is exhibited and skilfully staged what else the mineralogists found here, deep in the mountain, almost two kilometers from the entrance and 500 meters below the surface (grimselwelt.ch).
Information on Switzerland as a travel destination: myswitzerland.com
Participation in the trip was supported by Switzerland Tourism. Our standards of transparency and journalistic independence can be found at axelspringer.de/unabhaengigkeit.
Researchers make unique cave discovery
Speleologists have made an impressive find in the Windloch Cave, which was only discovered in 2019. With corridors with a total length of 7300 meters, the cave is one of the largest in Germany.
This article was originally published in September 2021.
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