Mind Your Head! The Train Is Leaving

The signatures of visitors attest that the caves were already known in the 13th century. The first map of the sections discovered up to then was published by the Viennese mathematician J. N. Nagel in 1748. The Postojna Caves are among the first tourist caves to have introduced paid visits (1824) and a tourist guide service (1825). The visitors' book was established in 1819. The first underground inhabitant, the beetle known as "drobnovratnik" or the olm (Leptodirus hochenwartii), was discovered in the Postojna Caves in 1831. The first guide to the caves was published in 1821, the first guide in Slovene in 1863. The tradition of underground events dates back to 1825, the year of the first Whit Monday ball. Torches and candles were replaced by electric lighting as early as 1884. The first transport of visitors with carts pushed along the rails by guides dates back to 1872.

The little train pulled by a petrol-engine locomotive began running in 1914. To this day the caves have been visited by more than 30 million visitors.