View on Lessini Mountains: on the left Corno d'Aquilio - photograph © splugadellapreta.it

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Spluga della Preta: a myth

Spluga della Preta is one of the most famous abysses in the world, a deep emptyness inside Corno d’Aquilio in the Lessini Mountains, near Verona (Venetian Prealps). It is considered one of the most difficult cave and it is a myth for the international speleologist: it is one of the four largest vertical cave systems explored early in the world, with depths ranging, after the first campaigns, between 300 and 500 m.

The early exploration of Spluga della Preta took place in the years 1925, 1926 and 1927, after those of Abisso di Trebiciano in the Carso of Trieste, of Abisso di Monte Nero and of Abisso Bertarelli in Istria.

Due to the fact that the depth has been overestimated by the first explorers, this system was considered for nearly 30 years as the deepest cave in the World (Stegagno, 1927; Corrà, 1975; Mietto & Sauro, 2000). During more recent explorations the present bottom has been reached at the depth of 877 m (Sauro, Menichetti & Troncon, 1995).

In the second half of the 20th Century, even if the name of the Spluga della Preta has been cut from both the lists of the deepest cave of the World, and of Italy, its old fame attracted tens of expeditions from many different countries.
For this reason the cave system was explored and studied and the great scientific importance of it and of the relative environment has been understood.
In the Sixties several European expeditions faced this bottomless pit and tryed to discover its maximum depth. In 1963 the Italian speleologists, after nine days inside the abyss, reached the first bottom, at the depth of –885 m.
In the following years, and up to now, English, Polish, Belgian, Russian, American and Italian expeditions tried to find new developements to deep more and more their way into the heart of the mountains.

The Preta system is the result of a speleogenetic evolution occurred in a peculiar geological and geomorphological environment. Speleogenesis has been controlled by:

a) the lithological sequence, characterised by an hanging aquifer hosted inside the dense network of fractures of a marly limestone (Biancone), similar to the chalk, loosing water in the underlying pure limestones
b) the tectonic structuration of the area (the cave system is inside a tectonic wedge evolving as a thrust structure)
c) the deepening of the large lateral valley of the Adige River, very near to the cave.

The cave is also of great biological interest. It hosts endemic species of invertebrates discovered in it, and between these the largest cave carabid ever found in the world.

Green high pastures on Lessini Mountains - Corno d'Aquilio mount in the background - photograph © splugadellapreta.it

The Geosite of Spluga della Preta, which is now part of the Natural Regional Park of the Monti Lessini, may be considered of global importance according with the coexistence of very different aspects, all relevant. It may be classified as GINCI, GINAC, and GINAN.

The mistery of Spluga della Preta has not been disclosed yet. Generations of cavers have tried to follow the air tides and try dangerous climbs in order to find a way out in the river Adige Valley.

Nowadays a group of entusiastic young cavers is completing difficult explorations in the deepest part of the abyss.