Pazin cave

Pazin Cave, the Pazinska jama, is the deep karst gorge that opens directly below the castle and old town of Pazin, into which the Pazinčica stream drops and vanishes underground. It is one of the most striking natural features of the Istrian interior, a vertical-walled chasm in the very centre of a county town, and its romantic setting made it famous in literature.

The chasm is tied to two writers in particular: Dante, who is said to have drawn on it for the imagery of the underworld in the Inferno, and Jules Verne, who used it in his novel “Mathias Sandorf”. The gorge is part of a larger cave system that has been explored for over a century, with a series of halls, lakes and underground passages carved by the sinking river.

The rim of the chasm can be walked, and for the adventurous there is a via ferrata and a zip line that cross or descend into it, giving a view down into the gorge from above. The castle above, the Kaštel, holds the Pazin regional museum and looks straight over the edge.

For photographers, the chasm from the castle terrace is the image, and the zip line gives an aerial angle if you ride it. Bring shoes with grip for the gorge paths, and combine it with the castle museum and the old town of Pazin for a half-day in central Istria.

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