Biserna, the longest and most beautiful cave on the Shumen plateau, opens to tourists

Biserna Cave (Cave Pearl) - the longest and most beautiful cave in the Shumen Plateau Nature Park (Northeastern Bulgaria), will be open to tourists starting from April 2, the park's Directorate announced on March 25.

The cave can be visited only after prior registration, from Wednesday to Sunday inclusive, and visitors will not be accepted on Mondays and Tuesdays.

On weekdays, entry times are scheduled for 10:00, 11:30, and 13:00, while on holidays and weekends, groups will be admitted at 15:00 as well.

The walk through Biserna Cave is approximately 800 meters in one direction. The temperature inside is around 10°C, so visitors are advised to bring warm clothing and suitable closed shoes. The cave is accessible on foot, as the forest road is not suitable for vehicles.

Parking is available on the asphalt road before the turn for the Shumen Municipality villa. There are two hiking routes - from the Borovets fountain in the Kyoskovete Park, via the marked "Lesson on the forest path" route, and from the turn-off for the Old Town fortress, along the road to the municipality's villa. There are signposts along all the routes, the Nature Park Directorate said.

Biserna Cave is inhabited by 14 species of bats. It is usually open to visitors only during spring and autumn due to the life cycle of the bats, which habitat is the cave. The bats are a protected species according to the Biodiversity Act, the park's Directorate reminded.

Biserna Cave was last opened to visitors in early September 2024. Last year it was visited by nearly 5,000 tourists.

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The "Biserna" cave is located in the "Kyoshkove" area, 1 km west of the town of Shumen and at an altitude of 404 m above sea level. It is inclined, ascending, branched, two-story and watery, with water constantly flowing out of it. Its entrance is about 50 m lower than the ridge of the plateau and is northeast facing. It is developed in two floors (Upper and Lower Gallery). The lower floor is an underground river, the average flow rate of which is 8 l/s. The galleries are located one above the other and have a permanent vertical connection.

The "Biserna" cave is the longest and most beautiful cave on the Shumen plateau. The first reports about it date back to 1928 by the French geographer Jean-Denis Barbier du Bocage. Serious research began in 1968 by Shumen and Sofia speleologists. As a result of several expeditions, 2,200 m of the cave were explored and mapped. In 2003, the cave club at the "Madarski Konnik" tourist association in Shumen continued the research and discovered new galleries, whereby the length of the cave "grew" to 2,716 m.

The cave is rich in various in size and colour formations: stalactites, stalagmites, stalactones, draperies, sintered crusts, tiger decoration, etc. Some of the bizarre forms are called "Castle", "Beehive", "Cactuses", "Throne", "Steamboat", etc.