What secrets does the Municipality of Ston hide underground?
As Morski writes on the 26th of October, 2018, speleological research on Pelješac began within the scope of the “Secrets of the Underground World of the Ston Municipality” project.
The project leader is the Croatian Mountaineering Company ”Sniježnica”, and the project is being implemented in close cooperation with the Public Institution for the management of protected areas of nature of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the Croatian Biospeleology Society.
The aim of the project is to take a closer look and evaluate the speleological areas found, as well as record previously unknown information of the sort in the wider Ston Municipality. Within the framework of the project’s numerous activities, research on cave fauna will be carried out, topographic drafts of speleological areas will be drawn up, and various educational lectures and exhibitions for the local population will be held publicly.
Given the fact that many previously unexplored areas are in question in terms of this research, the aim is to include the local population as much as possible, and use their knowledge of the underground in their areas.
During the first speleological tour, a topographic draft of the Deveterica cave was drawn up.
The aforementioned cave, which has long been known to the local population, is located on the southern slope of Pelješac, above the village of Putnikovići, more specifically the hamlet of Vukotići.
Deveterica is characterised mainly by its large entrance, which boasts a length of 75 metres, a width of 47 metres, and an overall height of 30 metres. The cave’s entrance was once used as a shelter for animals and shepherds with their flocks of sheep and other livestock in the local area, as has been evidenced by its man-made retaining walls and an old dry stone ramp. In addition, many places in the caves main entrance lie old but still very visible traces of firewood and food products.
The aforementioned cave’s entrance continues down in narrow channels with a small number of stalactites and other interesting natural cave formations.
