A huge system of quarries in the center of Europe

It is always interesting and pleasant to visit places with a rich history, the spirit of the time, he is like that. But before, I had never been to places whose history goes back to the Middle Ages. Today I want to show you a huge quarry system located in the center of Europe.

On the way to the quarries you can meet the arched bridge, which has remained from the time of the first development.

They climbed. The weather is pleasant on the surface - about 25 degrees. And from the hole literally blows cold. Therefore, I had to dress up.

The beginning is good:

The development of limestone in these places began many, many years ago (somewhere even met a figure about the 12th century). The opportunities for this period are small. What was picked out with a pickaxe was used for construction and part as fertilizer.

Over time, the specifics of limestone mining and methods changed. Therefore, the system has such different shapes of walls and ceilings. In different periods, production was carried out both open and closed.

Throughout the history of these quarries, people hid in them. Runaway criminals, exiles, heretics. During the First and Second World Wars, the caves were also far from empty, thanks to them during the wars many people were saved.

In the 19th century, they were used by a large spiritual order for relaxation and prayers.

Each inhabitant (both out of boredom and for history) left drawings and inscriptions on the walls of the quarry. The most impressive art is in the part that was given over to the official museum, and in the abandoned one we came across this:

According to the plot, you can guess the date, but you can not say for sure.

And the drawings in the main part of the system - the museum - in general can be called masterpieces. The spiritual order did a great job, reproducing on the walls the paintings of great artists. They painted with charcoal. Also, these guys were not too lazy and carved the relief of window frames, imitation of buildings and statues in limestone.

These are not all the surprises of the quarry. A couple of centuries ago, dinosaur bones were found there.

… It's not him:

... he is in the museum.

Here is an example of the creativity of some inhabitants:

At the very other end of the system met imitation windows. But this, apparently, is a modern work, because the date is cut out in Roman numerals - MMXV.

If you walk over the caves on the surface, you will notice many ravines overgrown with bushes and trees. By themselves, such ravines do not attract attention at all, but if you know where they came from and what happens under them, it becomes much more interesting.
It looks like one of the landslides. Man for scale.