Vjetrenica
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How it came to be
Vjetrenica Cave opens near the village of Zavala at the southwestern edge of Popovo Polje, a karst plain in the Dinaric Alps of southern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The name means wind cave: in the warm months a strong blast of cold air blows from the entrance. The cave belongs to the Trebišnjica river system.
It is known for the diversity of its underground fauna. More than 230 taxa have been recorded, of which 93 live only underground, and 40 of those were first described to science from this property. The cave holds nine species of the amphipod genus Niphargus and the world's only cave-dwelling tubeworm, Marifugia cavatica.
The cave area covers 22.87 ha within a property of 413.97 ha. The government of Bosnia and Herzegovina placed the cave and Zavala village on its Tentative List, and the cave was inscribed as a natural World Heritage site at the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee in 2024.
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