New tourist attraction at Dubrovnik Airport

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The Dubrovnik Airport invested 2,2 million kunas in the project to explore, develop and evaluate the cave, wishing to preserve this natural phenomenon and offer it as an attraction not only to the airport customers but also to all visitors to this region. With a pleasant temperature of 16 degrees centigrade and the area of 9 thousand square metres, the cave is a real refreshment during the hot summer months, both for the body and the eye.
Although Croatia is believed to have more than 8000 caves and pits, only twenty of them have been completely or partially developed for public use. The idea of Tonći Peović, the Dubrovnik Airport Manager, to start a research and later develop the cave was well received both by the experts and people engaged in tourism.
When the speleologists of the Karst Phenomena Exploring and Surveying Society, headed by Tihomir Kovačević, entered the cave for the first time, they recognized its geomorphological, biospeleological, palaeontological, archaeological and aesthetical values that could be used for creating a new Croatian tourist brand, provided that all measures for the protection of this unique natural beauty have been taken.
The archaeological finds discovered in the cave date from the Bronze and the Iron Age. According to the records, the Austrian bio-speleologist Viktor Apfelbeck carried out the first bio-speleological research in the early 20th century. Some other speleologists had investigated the cave by 1962, when the construction of the Dubrovnik Airport began. From then on Đurović Cave slowly began to fall into oblivion.
Almost 40 years later it aroused interest again when Tonči Peović, the Airport Manager, engaged the speleologists of the Mosor Society of Split to make the first plan of the cave, on the basis of which the work could continue.
Outstandingly beautiful, the cave abounds in stalactites and stalagmites that are still growing, because the cave is "alive". The largest hall at the cave's end, which the researchers named the Dubrovnik Republic Hall, is truly fascinating. Apart from the Little Chapel, it has the most beautiful dripstones. The Airport's first priority is not the income from the cave but the preservation of the natural beauty under the experts' supervision, and the presentation of the cave as a special tourist attraction. Although the cave has been completely developed for public use, the people in charge still look for the best solution in order to present it as a regional tourist attraction.
The majority of local people know about Đurović Cave, and many of them had entered the cave through a natural opening before it was closed and filled with concrete during the airport construction. The cave is now entered through an artificial 40 metres long tunnel which is closed by an iron gate in the vicinity of the Airport main office.

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