The Verna, the speleology within the reach of all
- EDF, the French public energy company, once saw the possibility of producing electricity in the cave occupied by speleologists. It opened its way on the mountain and a tunnel was excavated, but the goal was paralyzed until the private company SHEM built the power plant. The EDFs spend some time on the open road for visitors to enter one of the largest caves in the world today. It reaches La Verna with a two-and-a-half hour tour from Santa Grazi.
The cave of La Verna, and the ravine of San Martin in general, are the speleologists who know it best. La Verna itself would not be known in public if it were not for several underground expeditions. Before the occupation of the sima, in 1952, the speleologist Marcel Loubens lost his life on the road to it. And it wasn't the only one. Today, you can also reach the entrance by bus or car, if you do not want to walk for two and a half hours or if you cannot do it. The area is also adapted to people with disabilities. The 660 meter tunnel can be visited through, with a helmet in the head but calmly, one of the largest earthquakes in the world.
Enough to introduce six Notre-Dame
194 meters high, 240 meters wide, to appreciate its grandeur, it is mentioned the possibility of six Parisian cathedrals of Notre-Dame entering the cave. Nowadays, the visitor has the scale in view, thanks to the mannequins of 1.80 meters of altitude that are installed in all corners of the cave. However, the size of La Verna cannot be explained with the data. It's amazing. Until a balloon is inflated and flown in 2003. In addition to the grandeur, the moment and the way in which the cave was formed, the presence of the rocks that preceded the formation of the Pyrenees… the enormous underground room is interested.
It's also private interest. The French company SHEM, dedicated to the production of electricity from the force of the La Verna cascade, uses this room to illuminate, among other things. The electricity supply reaches over 2,000 households. The idea of building a power plant was initially from the public company EDF. In particular, the EDF had this objective of opening a mountain road to the entrance of the cave and digging the tunnel into the stone. The plant was finally abandoned by the private company. The road and the tunnel are currently used by visitors.
If the way to visit La Verna is different, from the most comfortable to the most sporty. In the one-hour visit you can cross the tunnel and from the terraces located in a corner you can see the whole room. On visits of one or two hours, large groups can come, up to 30 people, which in most cases eliminates the magic of the cave's silence. The indications, from the adventures of speleologists to the formation of the sima, also become fans, preventing the assimilation of a multitude of data. Other formulas are also proposed in the reception area of Santa Grazi. And prices depend: an hour of visit to seventeen euros, two hours to 27 euros and what they call adventure, exploration from 230 euros for a group of five, depending on the time you want.
www.laverna.fr webgunean
The Basque country has a very large water flow in the shortage. Every local drop curls and revives our culture. Offer a sea of water to that thirst. Although the Basque Country has come from a deep and dark well, we have all drawn our sample of salt water and turned it into a... [+]
